The first thing I did was to congratulate Jennifer on her pregnancy, and I asked her how she is feeling. She said that she is doing well, and that she is finally “past all the yucky stuff!”

It’s a good thing that she’s over that “yucky stuff,” because when I spoke to her, she had just enjoyed a roundtable discussion with chef Suzanne Goin to talk about and share holiday traditions, recipes, and memories. It would have been hard talking about food if she were still suffering from morning sickness!

I asked Jennifer what some of her favorite holiday recipes were, and she had sweet potato casserole and homemade cornbread at the top of her list. In fact, Jen even does holiday cooking herself instead of having it catered.

Jen also gave me information on how Frigidaire is making holiday cooking a bit easier this year with its new Frigidaire Range With Symmetry Double Ovens. The freestanding range can cook two whole turkeys at once, and it even preheats in 4 minutes, saving you plenty of time in the kitchen.

Garner also reported that the Frigidaire Range with Symmetry Double Ovens is smudge and fingerprint proof, which is perfect for moms who have plenty of sticky fingers in their households.

Speaking of sticky fingers…Jennifer gave a great tip for how to keep the kids out of the kitchen while you are preparing your holiday meals. She told me that she tries to do as much prep work in the week before the holiday to avoid being interrupted by the kids on the actual day. She also added that it helps if there is a grandparent nearby to keep the children busy while she cooks! (Didn’t I tell you that she’s just like us)?

Jennifer is also encouraging people to visit Frigidaire.com to help give back and benefit a great cause. For the first 500 visits to the site, Frigidaire will donate a turkey to a Save the Children family. Also, for every single visit to the site, Frigidaire will donate $1 to Save the Children.

As an added bonus, all site visitors can enter to win one of the new Frigidaire Ranges with Symmetry Double Ovens. Wouldn’t one of those come in handy this holiday season?

It was so great to talk to Jennifer again. I felt like I was talking to a friend instead of an A-list celebrity! I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to watch her bump grow through the holiday season!

Source: http://blogs.babble.com/

The fresh-faced beauty from West Virginia is an incredibly talented actress who defies typecasting. She was as convincing as an international assassin in “Elektra” as she was playing a gawky teenage girl trapped in an adult’s body in “13 Going On 30.” She’s also married to actor Ben Affleck, with two beautiful daughters and a third baby on the way. Plus, when she’s not balancing a successful career with raising a family, Jennifer is an active advocate for Save the Children – an organization that works to improve childhood education, literacy, physical activity and nutrition.

“One of five kids in our country live in poverty,” she said. “They don’t get the food and resources they need, much less the reds, yellows and greens they should have in their diet. We want to teach children how to eat healthy while they’re young.”

This year, the 39-year-old actress is once again teaming up with Frigidaire to raise money for this worthy cause. To celebrate the launch of the new Frigidaire Range with Symmetry Double Ovens, Jennifer shared some of her best tips and tricks for holiday entertaining online at MakeTimeForChange.com. For the first 500 visits to the page, the brand will donate a turkey to a needy family, and for every single visit, $1 will be donated to Save the Children.

She also took the time to chat with ModernMom about her family, the holidays and why Save the Children is so close to her heart. Read the full interview below:

What inspired you to get involved with Save the Children?
I wanted to work with Save the Children when I learned about the efficacy of their program and the breadth of their program for helping kids from ages zero through elementary school who are growing up in poverty in rural America.

What are some ideas for how can families help others in need this holiday season?
It’s a tricky thing, to teach your children about philanthropy because you want them to understand without any feelings of guilt. So it’s a fine line. One thing that I’ve always found is that we are always needing to purge books, clothes, toys and really help your kids understand through pictures or online, driving through different parts of town. Help them understand who will be the recipient of toys that are still in great shape but maybe aren’t the ones that are first out of the toy box anymore, and maybe take them with you when you donate them.

Speaking of holidays, how does your family celebrate?
We celebrate the holidays with as many family members as we can gather together, whether it’s at our house in LA or we travel to West Virginia or Boston, you know you’re always going somewhere or someone is coming in. Nothing makes me happier than being in the kitchen with my mom and sisters. That to me, feels like Thanksgiving.

What’s your favorite holiday recipe?
We always make my Grandmother Exie’s sweet potato pudding with marshmallows roasted on top. It is sweet and gooey and hardly even counts as a vegetable by the time we’re through but it is our family’s big-time, forever tradition.

Once the holidays are over, and you’re back into the regular routine, how do you get your children to eat healthy food?
Well, you encourage kids to eat healthy food by offering it to them when they’re hungry. So I always have some kind of cut-up vegetables available when I’m cooking dinner, right when everyone is their hungriest – instead of crackers and cheese. I mean, I love those foods as well, but I sneak in the veggies whenever I can. That way it’s just an organic part of what they’re snacking on.

How do you manage to find the time for family meals with a such a busy schedule?
Well, the great and also the hard thing about my job is the inconsistency, so when I’m working, I don’t always make it home in time for dinner. If that’s the case, then usually Ben takes over or or my mother-in-law is around, you know we figure it out. But when we’re really busy, we’ll try to have breakfast together and make that our time together, even if it’s early in the morning. And certainly, sometimes I’ll have dinner a couple of times – I’ll have it at five o’clock with the kids and then I may have it again later with Ben. You know it may add a couple of pounds, but it’s so important to all sit down together.

What’s one thing people don’t know about you?
One thing that people don’t know about me is that I was born with a hole in my head where everyone else has a sense of direction. And I cannot tell my left from my right, I don’t know which street I just came down or which way I’m going ever ever ever, even in my own hometown.

Source: http://www.modernmom.com/

Garner shared Butter — which she produced and also stars Olivia Wilde, Alicia Silverstone, Rob Corddry, Ashley Greene, and Yara Shahidi as her upstart rival — with an enthusiastic crowd last night at the Toronto Film Festival. When she thanked her crew before the screening at the Roy Thomson Hall, she slipped in a little Hillary-ism, saying “It took a big village” to make her movie. Harvey Weinstein wasn’t as subtle, making headlines by publicly inviting Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann to co-host and debate issues at the film’s premiere in early 2012.

Pregnant with her third child, the kinder, gentler Garner you know from movies like 13 Going on 30 and Juno sat down to talk about her film, her career, and, of course, Harvey.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The film has great fun satirizing our current political landscape. Was that what attracted you to the project?
JENNIFER GARNER: Actually, I love things that happen that are of a place. Growing up in West Virginia, I went to every festival. I marched in every parade in the marching band. I love all of that stuff, the celebration of place, you know? In West Virginia, it’s blue-grass. It’s tall-tale contests where people try to tell the biggest whopper. Stuff like that. So I love that in another part of the country, it’s butter sculpting. And I love that that’s a way that people can connect over their shared culture.

Your character might surprise audiences familiar with your most popular roles. Laura is someone who… um…
Someone who says, “F^@!” Of course that was on purpose, and of course that was great fun. The whole point of being an actor is to play different roles. And I don’t think that I’ve been pigeonholed — I feel like I’ve gotten to play a lot of different characters and do a lot of different things — but it did feel like, “Oh, I am feeling awfully nice these days.” I’m ready to spin this around, you know? I’m a little over myself.

She ruthlessly undermines a cute 10-year-old orphan! Who, by the way, is played by an actress who couldn’t be sweeter. Where did you find Yara?
We were ready to do a huge national search. We were going to look all over the country for this little girl. Ready to go, spend the money. And she walked into the casting office in LA, and director Jim Field Smith called us after, “We don’t have to do any of that. We found her.” We saw her tape and we just said, “Oooooofff, yes please. Get us her, that exact girl.” And she really was that magical in real life. She glows from the inside out. The DP said he didn’t have to light her. She’s luminous. She’s going to be a gorgeous woman. It’s her heart. She’s just good.

The film’s political undercurrent is generating a lot of buzz, and while the film doesn’t have an agenda besides laughs, Harvey Weinstein’s playful but pointed comment last night is this morning’s headline.
We were kind of surprised because, for Jim and me, this movie is a comedy. It does have political undertones and it does satirize the political process or politicians — in a very skewed way. It’s not direct by any stretch, but the important thing to us is it’s a piece of entertainment and that people are connecting to the characters. But Harvey really knows what he’s doing, and if that is something that people can grab on to and helps them want to read about the movie or hear about the movie, then great.

Is the version that screened last night the same cut that premiered at Telluride two weeks ago, and the same version that audiences can expect to see in theaters?
Yes it is. Bite your tongue. If you have any notes, tell them to Harvey. Cause we’re done. I don’t want to hear them. I think we’ll have a small release in December and then we’ll release for the Republican caucus in February.

Source: http://insidemovies.ew.com/

Garner, who also produced the comedy, stars as an occasionally potty-mouthed Iowa competitive butter carver, who takes over from her retired husband (Modern Family’s Ty Burrell) to vie for the state championship, with an eye to riding her popularity all the way to the governor’s mansion — and beyond. What she doesn’t count on is a 10-year-old carving whiz (newcomer Yara Shahidi).

Wednesday morning, the mother of two young daughters had traded party heels for black Chanel flats and her gown for a simple black dress and red sweater. She was operating on about four hours’ sleep yet looked well-rested and lovely, still riding high on the response of the TIFF crowd. Garner said at the premiere her goal was to bring Butter, a project she took on three years ago, to Toronto to debut, knowing this was the best festival for her movie.

Q: You were amazing last night, pregnant and staying up way past my bedtime to party at the Windsor Arms. How did you manage it?

A: I made a little bargain with God. My mom always says if you’re going to make a bargain with God don’t do it over something trivial, but I did. I said, “If people will just laugh at this movie I will go so happily to this party afterward.” And they laughed and so I said, “Okay, I have to go with a smile on my face as stay as long as they want me to.”

Q: Your feet must have been killing you.

A: Your feet do hurt more when you’re pregnant but when you sign up to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild, they give you a lesson in walking in heels and surviving heels. It came in handy.

Q: Your character, Laura Pickler, is so uptight and straitlaced, yet she lets fly with some amazing obscenities. There’s nothing funnier than a prim Iowa mom saying “mother——.” Why is that?

A: (laughing) I used to say it a lot more. We toned it down. It didn’t do it for you because I said it too much and you don’t want to offend. You want to shock but you don’t want to offend.

Q: Did Jason Reitman help you with that? I understand he was brought in to give some suggestions for the movie during the editing process.

A: Yes, he really helped us know where to pull back. Towards the end of the process, Harvey (Weinstein), Jason and I and my producing partner Juliana (Janes) sat down and watched the film together over about 6 1/2 hours and Jason just had some very smart and specific notes that we followed. Jim Field Smith is without a doubt the director of this film; Jason godfathered us. That happens all the time. My husband (Ben Affleck) always has other directors come in and watch his films and give notes and opinions.

Q: We’re seeing more R-rated comedies (often rated 14A in Ontario) lately, like Bridesmaids. Do you see Butter fitting in with that?

A: I think it’s a bit on a different track. This is R-rated because of a couple of ideas and language — in no way meaning to put those movies down. This is more R-rated in the vein of Juno.

Q: Were you inspired by Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann for Laura Pickler and her political aspirations?

A: I wasn’t inspired by them, to be honest. I watched a lot of YouTube, former and current first ladies of states like Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota. I watched a lot of Jackie (Onassis).

Q: Now that you’ve produced, would you direct?

A: I directed an episode of Alias and I loved it. I’d be more apt to direct a play. That being said, there’s no room for two directors in one family. It’s too much of a time-stealer.

Q: Were you surprised that Olivia Wilde, who plays a blackmailing stripper-turned-butter carver, was this funny?

A: I always knew Olivia would be balls to the wall. I asked her, “How do you feel about stripping?” And she said, “Yeah, okay.” Her first day of work was stripping, besides learning to strip. She’s such a good actor that she’ll do anything.

Q: Was doing the butter carving something that helped you with your character?

A: For sure. Yes. We could have stayed in those butter coolers for the whole movie. We used soy wax, not real butter. You should do it. Put a bunch of hunks of butter together and start carving with a knife. I am telling you, it’s so gratifying.

Source: http://www.toronto.com/

Any of the bleary-eyed celebs wandering Toronto can attest to the grind of a film festival, from the red carpets to day-long press junkets to glad-handing at parties all night — but handling it while dealing with the typical discomforts of pregnancy would seem even tougher.

Yet Garner says she’s taking it in stride.

“Luckily, I’m just at that … window when you’re pregnant — the magic second trimester — where you feel you’re done being nauseous,” the personable star said in an interview Wednesday, clad in a black dress with a vibrant red cardigan.

“Right now, I forget that it’s there except that I can’t have wine at the end of the night.”

Still, Garner admits that there have been some queasy moments.

“We were at a screening in the first trimester, when I was quite green,” recalled Garner, who has been married to Oscar-winning actor Ben Affleck since 2005.

“And we were sitting in this restaurant beforehand. We needed to have these conversations, but the smells of the restaurant — I was really like, wooo,” she added, opening her eyes wide and sucking in air sharply.

“I had this lollipop at the time. I had a purse full of lollipops. People were like: ‘Do you want dinner? You’re just going to have a lollipop?’ I was like, ‘Nope, just lollipops.’ I was like having one after the other after the other. So that was difficult.”

On Wednesday, Garner was still basking in the glow of the “Butter” premiere. She produces and stars in the satirical comedy about the cut-throat world of competitive butter-carving in small-town Iowa.

The film — which co-stars Olivia Wilde, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone, Hugh Jackman and Ty Burrell — has subtle political undertones that were brought to the forefront after an incident at Tuesday night’s premiere, where Wilde read a message from the absent Harvey Weinstein, whose company is handling the film.

In the note, Weinstein invited Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann to the Iowa premiere of the film, while adding that the two could take math classes together to help balance the budget and play some “verbal ping-pong” on gay rights and women’s rights.

The invitation was the top story on Variety’s website on Wednesday, and Garner could only tip her hat to Weinstein.

“I certainly wouldn’t sell it as a political movie although Harvey is certainly much more savvy than I, and a genius at selling a film,” she said. “So I was just looking actually at this headline in Variety that Bachmann’s been invited to the premiere.

“It’s like, Harvey, you are amazing. He just is so good at what he’s good at. So I just have to hand it to him and stay out of the way.”

Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

In the five years since J. J. Abrams’s spy show Alias ended its run, quite a bit has happened in the life of its former star, Jennifer Garner. While the actress did rack up four consecutive Golden Globe nominations as ass-kicking CIA agent Sydney Bristow, she’s since had two girls with husband Ben Affleck (whom she married in 2005), starred in films ranging from action-thriller The Kingdom to indie dramedy Juno, made her Broadway debut opposite Kevin Kline in Cyrano de Bergerac, and is currently expecting her third child.
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Showing a noticeable baby bump, the youthful-looking Garner is at the Telluride Film Festival for the world premiere of Butter, which she also produced. Garner plays Laura Pickler, a conservative Iowan with a screw loose whose husband (Modern Family’s Ty Burrell) is the “Elvis of butter sculpting.” When he’s forced into retirement, Laura wants to continue the family legacy, but a 10-year-old black girl—and butter-sculpting prodigy—stands in her way for the county title. In this screwball satire of Middle America, Garner’s character—who lashes out against “the liberal media” and claims that God speaks to her—seems to bear a major resemblance to current presidential candidate Michele Bachmann, despite the fact that the film was shot more than 18 months ago.

“Sometimes the times catch up to satire, and it’s hard to even be satirical in a culture or society that gets more extreme in real life every week,” says the film’s Oscar-nominated producer, Michael De Luca (The Social Network).

In an exclusive interview, Jennifer Garner opened up to The Daily Beast about her pregnancy, her conservative upbringing, whether she wants to star in a Ben Affleck film, balancing motherhood and acting, and early signs of chemistry with her future hubby while promoting Daredevil.

This film festival is so unique because the actors bring their families.
It’s been a really great vacation. We’ve really missed Ben because he’s full-on shooting Argo right now, but it’s been great.

Do you and your two daughters visit him on set?
We go and visit all the time, but [the girls] are noisy. We go for a quick visit, craft services, hug, and we’re outta there!

So let’s talk Butter. You grew up in West Virginia, so were you privy to any Midwestern quirkiness?
What I was privy to was that people were such characters that if you saw them in a movie, they could seem outrageous, but that’s who they really were. I think in small towns your character really has a chance to bloom, for better or for worse.

And you had a very conservative upbringing in West Virginia.
My dad is very conservative, but my mom is quietly blue, and my sisters and I all buck my father’s trend, so we have some very lively discussions when we try to go that direction at dinner. Most of the time we’re very polite, though. We were very conservative in that we didn’t have our ears pierced; none of us ever had layers in our hair or a perm or color. We were the Garner Girls, and we were very “appropriate” at all times.

Did you rebel?
I rebelled by not getting straight A’s and not following the path that my elder sister did. She was valedictorian and is very exemplary in her way. I look a lot like her, so I just had to do the opposite. Not that I got bad grades, but I was all about performance and just finding any way that I could to be involved in any kind of production. That was a lot for my parents to swallow, but even when I told my parents I was changing my major to theater, my dad was working so hard to send me to college and he didn’t bat an eye.

Do you still have that Midwestern gal in you, and how does it manifest itself?
I have a bit of a “golly gee” thing to me, for sure. I was just born happy, so I have my moments. I’m not drinking right now for my accent to come out, but it doesn’t take much!

I’m not sure if you’ve seen our Newsweek cover of Michele Bachmann…
The one with the eyes?

Yes! Many are comparing your character in Butter to Bachmann.
Clearly that’s serendipitous for us, because we made this movie almost a year and a half ago. We weren’t pointing to any one person, but it’s definitely [serendipitous].

You’ve gone through phases, from the ass-kicker on Alias and in Daredevil to good-natured rom-com lead, and now to a bit of a nutcase in Arthur and Butter.
I feel lucky, though, because even when Alias was popular, I was still sent scripts against type. I’ve never felt like the world only sees me one way. But yes, it’s been really fun to be bad. There’s plenty of dark in [me]!

Your character in Butter is in many ways a foil to the caring mother-to-be you played in Juno, which also made its world premiere at Telluride.
For sure. She’s the anti-mother. She has zero maternal instincts and happens to be the worst stepmother in the world to the beautiful Ashley Greene.

You’re producing and starring in films, your husband is a famous actor-director, and you’re a soon-to-be mother of three. How do you manage?
I don’t work that much. We shot Butter really quickly and there have been a lot of meetings since then, but I have a few part-time jobs and a very full-time home life and a very busy husband.

How’s the pregnancy going?
So far so good! I feel good and I’m still pretty early, but I’m at the point where it’s clicking along without thinking every day, “Oh, my gosh, I’m only this far!”

Back in the day, I saw a very fun episode of Jon Favreau’s IFC show Dinner for Five … [Skip to 6:30 mark]
God, I was hoping you weren’t going to say that! [Covers face with hands]

Is this like … a thing?
No, go ahead. Go ahead.

It was right after Daredevil came out, and there was you, Ben, Colin Farrell, Favreau, and Kevin Smith having a discussion. And this was, of course, before you and Ben had officially gotten together. And Kevin Smith was just ripping into Ben the entire time, and you kept coming to his defense. At the time, I just thought it was really cute that you guys had such great chemistry, but then you two ended up together.
[Laughs] There was really no significance to that. We were not together. We had not been together. But Kevin is so harsh and relentless, and anyone who’s worked with Ben has seen that he’s so kind and generous to anyone that he works with—and certainly had been nothing but a gentleman to me, for the record. I couldn’t bear it—the injustice of it all! And Kevin and I still, if I see him, he spends the whole time tearing him down and I’m like, “Well, wait a minute! I think he’s great!”

Your husband’s become this A-list director now, following The Town. How’s it been witnessing his creative evolution?
It’s nice to hear you say it! It’s not like you sit around and read each other’s box office; it’s just life. He seems confident and happy, and I think he’s doing really good work right now, and I’ve always had every confidence that he would be great at what he did, so the fact that it’s turning out to be true makes sense to me.

Do you want to star in a Ben Affleck film, or are you worried about a potential Shanghai Surprise situation?
I think he’s such a great director, and whenever I read his writing I’m just so happy for whoever gets to say his lines, but no. Unless it’s something that’s specifically a project we were doing together, but that wouldn’t happen for a long time because he’s not someone who shoots for 10-hour days and then lets you go home and be with the kids, and I think that would cause a conflict! [Laughs] And his movies should be a vehicle for him, because they take years of his life. He and I can’t work together. We can’t because people don’t want to see it, and I would feel ludicrous being in a scene with him at this point.

How do you feel when you look back on your career and the way it’s taken shape?
The most exciting moment that happened for me at this festival was there was this big photo call with all the directors and actors, and this woman came up to me and said, “Jennifer, do you remember me?” And it was Agnieszka Holland, and she had given me my first movie job when I was 23 [in Washington Square], and I knew immediately who she was. But just seeing her and looking back and thinking, “Wow, I’ve had this incredible luck and I’ve gotten to work all this time.” It really gave me a moment’s pause.

All that your character in the film has is butter, but you’re a star actress, you’re a soon-to-be mother of three, and your husband is a star director. What’s left for you to accomplish?
I’m only 39! [Laughs] For me, I look forward to having my kids grow up happy and healthy—and being very much a part of that with them; I look forward to looking back on 10 years of service with Save the Children; and I’m looking forward to trying to figure out how I can still do what I love with three kids, ’cause I think I can. I don’t see why I couldn’t! I’ve [breast] pumped on every sound stage and airplane and senator’s office, and I can do it again!

Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/

Children growing up in poverty have a much higher propensity for obesity, which means that by the time they’re four years old, they are a year-and-a-half behind developmentally, which means that when they start school, they’re already starting back on their heels instead of running at a full tilt like every kindergartener should be. It’s not a fair start, and it leads to high school dropout because you’re playing catchup right from the beginning.

So I believe in what Save the Children is doing to reach kids from 0-5 and their parents, to get them started on the right foot, to make sure that their vocabulary is enriched, that they have kindergarten-readiness skills like sitting in a circle, and to get books into the parents’ hands so they can get them into their kids’ hands.

Once the kids are in school, Save the Children helps them catch up with literacy programs, making sure they learn about healthy eating, that they get a little bit of exercise every day. I love the program so much. I’m completely devoted to them.

How do you recommend we get our own kids involved in the charity, or in charity in general?

It’s such a tricky thing to get your kids involved in charity work, and this is an ongoing dialogue I have with my friends and my husband. You don’t want them to feel sorry for the people they are helping. But at the same time, you want them to be aware of what’s happening in the world. You can start dipping a toe in really early. The kids have to see that the kids are people and that they’re the same, and that sometimes life isn’t fair, and that it’s your responsibility and pleasure to help level the playing field a little bit.

You can have a lemonade stand and use the money you make to sponsor a child on Savethechildren.ca, and then you can have a bit of correspondence with that child. You can see the child’s picture, know what they’re like. And they may be just down the road from you! The first Save the Children site that I visited was just a couple of hours away from my home in LA, and it’s in rural California. Before we came in, they had one book for every three hundred children in this community. That’s happening all over North America, and it’s such a shame.

Moms are always looking for meal ideas, do you have any food tips or ideas for busy moms?

FAST. I’ll take a chicken breast and cut it in half while the grill is heating, and I’ll just quickly marinate it first — even if it’s just a second, it adds a little flavour. Lime juice is very important [for the marinade], a fresh lime, a fresh lemon, olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper and, if it’s for me (this is too spicy for my kids), a few chili red pepper flakes. Three minutes a side because if it’s cut in half it’s so fast. And while that’s happening, I’ll just do whatever I have handy — even if it’s noodles — so at least I know they’ve got one good healthy part of the meal.

The other thing that I’ve been so into is keeping fresh vegetables out on the counter, cut up, while I cook. Because you know how everyone’s so hungry before dinner, so I like just having it out, no pressure. Eventually, the sugar snap peas and carrots and bell peppers…they go!

What are some of your top tips for balancing motherhood and your career, charity work and life in general?

I struggle with this every day. It’s a day-to-day thing. I don’t think there’s a some big answer for that. Every day you just look at the day, look at the week as best you can and figure out where your energy has to go that day. Today, for example, I’m here, and I’m thrilled to be here, and I know my husband’s home with the kids, and he’ll put them to bed today — they’re well taken care of. But then tomorrow, I’ll dive right back in [to family life].

Your fans everywhere want to know, how do you stay looking so amazing?

Oh, really? That’s so nice! Have people do your hair and make up. Have Rachel dress you, Genevieve do your makeup!

The only way to workout, as far as I’m concerned, is to do it before the kids are up. And I know it hurts, and I know it’s early. I try for every day. Sometimes it’s half an hour, and sometimes it’s an hour — never more than that.

Sometimes it’s at six in the morning. 5:45-6:45am. I don’t get it done every day, but I try to get it done every day. If I miss a couple of days in a row, then I really make an effort because, if you miss a week, then you’re out.

Source: http://blogs.todaysparent.com/

“Last week, President Obama, such great news, he delivered on 500 million dollars for innovative early learning programs. I was proud to fight for this funding with Save the Children alongside our allies like the First Five Fund,” she said in a press conference at the Capitol with Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) and Mark Shriver, the Vice President of Save the Children on Wednesday.

“It’s a fabulous accomplishment but it’s only a down payment. It’s still not enough to ensure that every toddler is prepared for a lifetime of success; that’s why all of this – the passage of this bill is so important.”

Senator Casey, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, has introduced both the “Prepare All Kids Act” which would help states provide at least one year of early education to children and the “Starting Early, Starting Right Act” that would give states funds to increase access to child care for low-income families.

Sen. Casey used a Bible verse, Sirach 6:14, to describe his support for the legislation.

“There’s a great line in the scriptures about a faithful friend, it says – somewhere, I’m not sure where but it’s in the scriptures – that a faithful friend is a sturdy shelter and he who has found one has found a treasure and I think one of the questions we have to ask ourselves especially in the midst of a very tough budget, a debate about deficit and debt where we’ve cut the size – where we’ve cut spending in the federal government dramatically this year; we’re going to cut it some more,” he said at the conference.

“Will we be, those of us who have votes, those of us who have a position in a public office, will we be that faithful friend to children? We will be that sturdy shelter?”

To highlight the need for the federal government to invest in early childhood education programs, Garner, who is married to Hollywood actor Ben Affleck, told the audience about the experience she has had with her own children.

“You guys look young like maybe you don’t have preschool age kids. Well, I do, I have a child entering pre-school this fall and a child entering kindergarten and believe it or not, a huge part of why you all are successful and bright and cheerful, clean, pretty looking people is because you were able to sit in a circle when you got to kindergarten – that is kindergarten readiness,” said Garner, an Artist Ambassador for the organization Save the Children.

“It’s being able to get along with your peers, knowing what a rhyme is, my daughter, my 2 year old can spout mother goose from, you know, here to next week, that is, that comes from school.”

Source: http://popwatch.ew.com/