about

Hi, I’m Gina Badalaty, owner of Mom-Blog.  I’ve been blogging since 2002 (yes, that’s correct) and this blog is a top search engine result in all major search engines for the term “mom blog”. I also have 3000 followers on Twitter, so yea, social media is my thing!

OTHER STUFF ABOUT ME: I’m a late-in-life mom, a special needs mom, a fussy child mom, a writer, a web developer & designer,  a writer, working at home mom, mom entrepreneur, and oh yea, happily married wife and a pretty cool chick too. When I was 33, I had a stroke caused by a rare genetic mutation, and “miraculously” recovered 100% in less than 6 months.

FAMILY: Two outstandingly beautiful girls. Amelia has a rare form of Down syndrome and is sweet, lovable, and just a hoot. Zoe has sensory integration disorder and doesn’t yet speak, but her laugh speaks volumes and she too has a happy nature. My hubby Chris is awesome and always makes me happy. Well, usually…

MISSION: To help, encourage, inspire and commiserate with other parents, especially if they are raising special needs children.

LOCATION: After 37 years of life in New York City, I moved to Northeast PA. I lived in the Poconos for a bit where my family resides, but now I’m south of Allentown and north of Philly and I LOVE it here.

HOBBIES: My favorite hobby is reading and my 2nd favorite hobby is reading too. I love too many books to name them all, but I’m a fussy reader. Literary fiction is my favorite, but nonfiction can be very good and a good Neil Gaiman always makes me happy.

PHILOSOPHY: Live, love, and let be. God helps me walk the less-traveled middle path – most days, but sometimes I falter. I think life is beautiful. Read more at my God Blog.

BOOKS: See all my favorites at my Shelfari page.

POLITICS: I’m a patriot and a mostly  liberal. People who don’t vote piss me off, but since this includes just about everyone I love, I forgive them…AFTER election day.

CULTURE: Contemporary alternative music is my favorite, but what really rocks my core is solid blues. I love a lot of music actually. I’m of all Sicilian descent, but I’m fascinated by Middle Eastern cultures.

MOVIES: I went to film school, so they are VERY VERY important to me. I love early Scorsese and Woody Allen – good deep drama and intelligent comedy. But THESE are my fav’s, meaning I can watch over and over:

• The Illusionist: one of the best movies EVER, amazing cast too.
• National Treasure: you can never see the Declaration of Independence getting stolen by the good guys too many times! Sequel’s ok, I think, too.
• Pirates of the Caribbean…1, 2, 3 or 4. Oh, wait, that didn’t come out yet!
• The 6th Sense and Signs: the best work IMO by M. Shamylin Night, which I’ve mispelled.
• Pride & Prejudice (original): What is 6 hours when you’ve got Colin Firth as DARCY???
• Bruce Almighty
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind AND Being John Malchovich (I love John Malchovich)
• Zoolander
• The Wedding Singer
• All 3 Shrek’s (but the first is the best)
• The Matrix (first one only, the rest were you-know-what)
• Star Wars, episodes IV-VI (this is so as not to disappoint my hubby. The new episodes were you-know-what.)

That’s all I can think of so far. What about you??