Embrace the Chaos is where moms can connect over parenting issues, sanity savers and more

Three kids are the most stressful number, says a survey by the Today Show.

I have three kids. I win the mommy stress competition! Phew, I knew that something good would finally come out of my multiple progeny.

According to the 7,000 women surveyed, moms of three kids have more stress than mothers with less kids, and even more stress than mothers who have four or more. The Today Show called it the "Duggar Effect". As if 19 kids are less stressful than my three.

Photographer Jaime Moore wanted to commemorate her daughter's fifth birthday with some photos. When she searched for inspiration she found a lot of little girls dressed up as princesses. But she wanted to do something different, so she posed her daughter Emma as five inspirational women who have made a difference in women's lives.

Sometimes we forget that celebrities have real feelings and are real people under all the makeup and paparazzi flashes. Even their children often look like props in a photoshoot entitled "just like us."

But Angelina Jolie, in a stunning op-ed in the New York Times, shows us that beneath the glamour, celebrities have the same pain and anxieties that as we do. 

Jolie chose to have a double mastectomy. She carries the mutated BRCA1 gene which dramatically increases her risk of breast and ovarian cancer (though BRCA1 and 2 mutations only make up 5 to 10 per cent of breast cancers). Jolie's mother died at 56 from the disease, and only met one of her six grandchildren.

Every once in a while, a nation gets inspired. And who better than a guitar-wielding, super-geek astronaut with a groovy 'stache?

Chris Hadfield returned to Earth on Monday night, but hopefully his legacy will inspire kids and adults to continue to look to the stars.

Chris Hadfield may just be the coolest astronaut that has ever lived. He doesn't have a catch phrase and a golf club, but communicated the simple pleasures and beauty of the earth while suspended in orbit for five months, 2,336 orbits, 146 days and 16 sunrises and sunsets per day. 

There was a coronation on Saturday, one that brought a new princess into our midst. No, not Kate - Merida from the Pixar movie Brave. Merida is the outspoken, arrow-shooting, boyfriend-shunning princess in the Oscar-winning Pixar movie. 

It seems just like Anne Hathaway's character in Princess Diaries, Merida had to get a makeover before the powers-that-be at Disney would allowed her to join her princess-y sisters.

Left: Merida from the movie. Right: Made-over Merida

One million babies die on their first day of life -- making their birth day the most dangerous day of their life.

Save the Children has come out with their State of the World's Mothers Index and the results are startling. Sub-Saharan Africa is the most dangerous place to give birth. If you are pregnant in the Democratic Republic of Congo you have a one in 30 chance of not living through the birth. Finland and other Nordic countries are ranked the best places to be a mother. 

I  have recently returned from a trip to Dominican Republic where I toured three SOS Children's Villages. A number of the orphaned children that I met ended up in care because their mothers had died in childbirth. It sounded outlandish to me that dying in childbirth is so common. There must be a way to make it better. And there is. 

I hate shopping at Abercrombie & Fitch. The heavy scent of cologne and teen angst makes me want to pass out. 

I don't need much of an excuse to steer my tween to some other mall store that sells overpriced preppy clothes in a loud obnoxious environment that's too dark to see the price tag. And thankfully, the CEO of Abercrombie has handed me and many other mothers a reason to cross the aisle.

When I was in labour with my second, there wasn't too much for my doula to do -- so she picked up the camera and took photos. And they are amazing. There is a black and white photo of my doctor catching my son and she looks so happy. 

I love them. But I don't show them to anyone (including my son). But they really do show the miracle, the teamwork and moment of his birth. (My doctor, however, has a framed copy on her wall.)

The fact that these beautiful black and white photos exist is a fluke. As much as I love them, would I hire a professional to take photos during the birth?

Did you know that if you got a serious sunburn before the age of 18, your chances of having a melanoma are doubled? Raise your hand if you got a serious sunburn before you were a teen. Because I sure did! My pale, freckly skin has burned to a crisp more than once. And that freaks me out.

Melanoma can be deadly. And it can be caused by sun exposure. (I admit it, before this post my knowledge of melanoma came from Izzie's experience on Grey's Anatomy.) 

I want to make sure that my kids don't raise their hands when asked the same question about sunburn. So I buy sunscreen all year round and yet, I still find myself confused at the aisle, with 483 different lotions at the drugstore. Is SPF 80 double the strength of 40? Is 15 even worth it?

Luckily, I went to a lunch sponsored by Coppertone where dermatologist Dr. Sonya Cook explained the ins and outs of SPF and sunscreen.