Today is NARAL’s Blog for Choice Day – a day to recognize the important fact that a woman should have a right to choose on issues regarding their reproductive rights. To know me is to know that I feel very strongly about this issue.

I’m very involved in NARAL Pro-Choice America. In fact, this year I’ve been selected to Co-Chair the Chicago Leadership Council – a great group consisting of NARAL national board members and local influencers in the Chicago community dedicated to keeping pro-choice candidates in office.

On this Blog for Choice Day, NARAL is asking bloggers to say what they are going to do to help elect pro-choice candidates in 2012? What am I going to do? Taking on this leadership role is one of the most important things I think I can do to help keep things stable in Washington. We’re in a decent place right now, and I hope this year we can continue the momentum to make sure women can keep on choosing what makes sense for them, their bodies and their families.

What will you do? I’d love to know and if you’re in Chicago (or anywhere else, for that matter), and you’d like to know more about NARAL, please feel free to comment here or send me an email.

There’s only so many hours in my day, and only so many funds in my bank account to pay for babysitters.  I have to use my free time efficiently and effectively. Unfortunately, I’m finding this means I’m spending more time shuttling between the grocery, dry cleaners, and car wash and less time doing what I set out to do when I quit my job: volunteering.

The recession has impaired not only my shopping budget, but my ability to give of my time and self to others.

I’m a selfishista. A cheapista. A narcissista.  I can’t get past paying the babysitter to stay a few more hours so I can do something besides accomplishing my bare bones needs.

When I stopped work, I made a pact with myself to give back to the community considering my new ”lady of leisure” status.  I was elected to a local board, joined my Temple’s membership community, and got involved with my son’s preschool. But while I thought that all this volunteering would just cost me time, I’m found myself adding more and more babysitter hours to fulfill all my non-paid commitments.

The belt tightening around my house didn’t necessarily mean I had to get rid of my babysitter altogether (hello, I can be cheap, but I still need my sanity), but it does mean that I have to make tough choices. And the grocery, even though I loathe it, will win every time.

The selfishista has arrived, and unfortunately, volunteering is going to take a hit.  Anyone else out there cutting back on the unpaid commitments too?