5TH WHEEL TRAILERS

Mama Rock's Rules: Ten Lessons for Raising a Houseful of Successful Children

Rose Rock—child advocate, educator, and mother of ten-plus children, including comedian Chris Rock—shares her heartfelt and no-nonsense advice on parenting
Uber-mom Rose Rock raised ten children and seventeen foster children. She did it by never shying away from hard conversations and by not being afraid to present strong ideas about boundaries, discipline, choices, and consequences. In short, Rose Rock tells it like it is.
In Mama Rock's Rules, Rock shares the funny and highly practical lessons she learned both as a parent and an educator, while offering strategies for teaching children to be self-reliant. Her advice—delivered with a dose of wit and homespun humor—will inspire you to teach your kids right, whether your brood is one child or ten.

february seventeen.

I'm happy. vandy on saturday! this song reminds me of vandy because i first heard when we went tailgating during parent's weekend.

so rock me mama like a wagon wheel
rock me mama anyway you feel
hey mama rock me
rock me mama like the wind and the rain
rock me mama like a south-bound train
hey mama rock me.
-old crow medicine show

Rock me Mama anyway you feel..
Heeeeeey Mama rock me.
Rock me Mama like the wind and the rain.
Rock me Mama like a south bound train.
Heeeeeey Mama rock me.

Two things Mama knows: sweet-potato pie...and murder.

Old bones and buried secrets...

I would have thought a bunion operation might slow Mama down, but I should have known better. We found ourselves knee-deep in somebody else's trouble even before the surgery, when we saw crazy old Miss Birdie at the grocery store with a baby that didn't belong to her. It wasn't twenty-four hours later that the baby's mother, a young woman with a wild reputation, was murdered--and the baby had vanished.

And when my Daddy's wandering dog began bringing home old bones of the most shocking kind, no way Mama wasn't going to start snooping--with me doing her legwork. It's a good thing I still had two good feet, because before long, I was running for my life...as babies' cries and women's tears mingled in a crime fueled by motives as ancient as human memory--greed, jealousy, and old-fashioned revenge.

There's lots of Southern honesty and grit on display in Nora DeLoach's latest book about Atlanta-based paralegal Simone Covington and her mother, a social worker in Otis, South Carolina, who can't help getting involved in murders. Mama Candi (named for her golden complexion, like candied yams) might appear to be cozy and comfortable on the surface--ready to whip up a splendid meal or quiet a crying child at a moment's notice--but underneath she's as tough and sharp-edged in her own way as her urban daughter.
"She was a tall girl whose head strutted two sets of weave," says Simone about Cricket Childs. Mama Candi elaborates: "Her complexion was mocha and her green dress fit her body like a wet suit. Cricket had a good figure except for a narrow behind that stuck out like a wad of chewing gum." Mama might have been somewhat less acerbic in her description, especially after Cricket is found dead and her baby girl missing. But both the Covington women are tough and shrewd survivors of a society that tries to force women, particularly African Americans, into molds. Other adventures of the Covington women include Mama Stalks the Past, Mama Traps a Killer, Mama Saves a Victim, and Mama Stands Accused. --Dick Adler