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I am fascinated by them all and gaze endlessly from my fire escape at the bats who swoop ’round and ’round each night in search of mosquitoes in my neighborhood. For most of my life, I have been like them—not eating mosquitoes, of course, but pretty much nocturnal. Seriously, for as long as I can remember, I have stayed up all night working on projects, playing video games, studying, and inventing recipes—it’s just when my creative energies are at their fullest. Being nocturnal in a non-nocturnal world, however—that is the challenge. Most of us need to keep office hours that are from the land of the living, so the balance can be tricky. I continually try to achieve this balance. While some coworkers get excited for the end of the workday, I tend to get more productive as the hours go by and have a hard time turning my computer off at 5:30; I start scheming of the projects I can accomplish while burning the midnight oil.

I do want to gain an appreciation for the day, and fortunately, I recently stumbled upon a great blog post titled “Seize the Day—How I Became an Early Riser, and You Can Too!”. The title seemed like it was meant for me, so I checked it out, embraced some of their suggestions, and made them my own. I’m happy to report that this method is working, and this week, I have been able to get up about half an hour earlier than usual, and I have not dreaded it. The tricks that have worked for me?

· Looking forward to a nice vegan breakfast. For years, I have wanted to try getting up to an interesting breakfast, and I am trying to incorporate international styles. Like, for example, a traditional Japanese-style breakfast of miso soup, nori, and rice. Or treating myself to an awesome soy latté.

· Increased appreciation for the non-nocturnal animals. I have now realized that when you get up early, you can spend a few groggy, eye-opening, waiting-for-the-tea-kettle moments gazing at the feisty squirrels and birds foraging on your lawn. Their business makes me super-motivated to start the day. Since I work for PETA, my day involves helping animals, so it’s a completely symbiotic relationship.

· Getting to the office early means an awesome parking space.

If you also are working on being more of an ‘early bird’, please share your tips!

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Does your child dread going back to school? After months of playing with the dog or cat, swimming, and tabling at fairs and festivals, sitting in math class probably doesn’t sound like much fun. Perhaps you can help “ease the pain” by encouraging him or her to look at it as an opportunity to teach other kids about animal rights issues. That will make any blossoming activist eager to get back to class.

Here are six easy ways that students can help animals. Show them to your child or tween and urge him or her to come up with other ideas—after math class, of course!

1. Decorate your locker and folders with free animal rights stickers from PETA—that way you’re spreading the message every time you’re at school or in class. You can even order PETAKids stencils to design a T-shirt or backpack.

2. Homework isn’t all bad. If you have to write an essay or give an oral report, why not incorporate animal rights issues, such as animal testing, spaying and neutering, or vegetarianism, into the assignment? Your classmates—and your teacher—can learn a lot from you.

3. Set up a donation jar in class (with the teacher’s permission) and encourage other students to put their change from lunch in the jar. When it’s full, give the money to a local animal shelter with a nice note signed by all the students.

4. Ask your teacher if your class can do one of the activities in the Share the World humane education program.

5. If your school carnival or fair has contests that give away goldfish as prizes, get a group of caring students together and politely complain to the principal. Explain that a frightened, lonely goldfish is no prize, and suggest stuffed animals as prizes instead.

6. Say “No!” to mystery meat. For lunch, pack a sandwich made with vegetarian deli slices from Yves or Tofurky slices. Fake meats are sold in most grocery stores now. When friends ask what you have for lunch, tell them proudly.

For “extra credit,” ask the school lunch server to offer more vegetarian meals. Circulate a petition to show that other students want healthy, humane fare. PETA’s youth division, peta2, has a pack of resources to help you out. You may want to ask your mom or dad to help out too.

For more ideas, activities, success stories, quizzes, facts, and jokes, check out 50 Awesome Ways Kids Can Help Animals.

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The first book I bought when the pregnancy test revealed two lines instead of one wasn’t What to Expect When You’re Expecting (aka “What they never told you about pregnancy that you wish you’d known before you got yourself into this state”). It was a small tome called Happy Kids, Happy Dogs.

Giehl and I share our home and lives with two wonderful dogs and two very cat-like cats (who are far too busy and important to be photographed today). Clyde and Emma are both around 3 years old, and they’re full of enthusiasm for life (and food). While kids and dogs are often a great combination (I loved the dog we had growing up more than I loved most of my friends and family, I think), too often, the dogs in the house get the short end of the stick after the baby arrives—and bad things can happen as a result (e.g., neglected dog starts acting out, neglected dog then becomes neglected and yelled-at-a-lot dog, then neglected and yelled-at dog gets dumped at the local animal shelter). Happy Kids, Happy Dogs talks about how to ensure that your human baby and your canine child grow up to love and respect each other, starting in pregnancy and all the way through adolescence.

So just as you’d prepare an older sibling for the arrival of a baby brother or sister, Giehl and I started to prepare our dogs early on for the arrival of a baby boy. We bought a doll and started carrying it around in our Ergo carrier, sitting on the couch with it pretending to feed, putting it in the swing … things that will become part of our routine when the real baby arrives. The trick is to make sure that the experiences the dogs have with the fake baby are positive (e.g., while I’m sitting on the couch feeding the fake baby, I’m also giving Clyde and Emma little bits of treats while they sit or lie quietly next to me). We also spent a lot of time working with them on some basic training. As Karen P., PETA’s resident dog expert, will tell you, dogs like to have a job! Our dogs’ only job is to sit nicely before they ask for something, but it makes a big difference in their overall mental health (and, therefore, in our sanity).

There’s just too much good stuff in Happy Kids, Happy Dogs to put in one post, so look for more later. And once B-Day (that’s Birth-Day) comes and goes, I’ll be sure to let you know how it all plays out in real life!

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My boyfriend’s nonvegan brother and sister-in-law came over for his birthday last week, although Jay (the bf) wouldn’t let me acknowledge that it was for his birthday. “They’re just coming over for lunch, and we happen to be having cake for dessert,” he said. OK, whatever. I cried a little inside about not having birthday candles and moved on.

We both revel in treating nonvegans to delicious vegan food. So when Jay’s normally laid-back brother started looking a little breathless and said, “So, there really aren’t any eggs in this cake? It’s so moist,” we both smiled. I said, “No, of course not. You don’t need eggs to make a good cake,” and I grabbed my copy of The Joy of Vegan Baking to show them some recipes (everything in that cookbook is absolutely amazing).

Whenever Jay and I serve vegan food to nonvegans, he always repeats the same line like a mantra: “Nothing you’ve eaten today had any cholesterol!” It’s like we’re on an infomercial, and I try to stifle my laughter. The thing is that for Jay, it’s not really a laughing matter. His father passed away suddenly from a heart attack in his 50s, and Jay’s brother’s cholesterol and triglycerides are dangerously high. He’s not even 40 yet, and he’s on cholesterol-lowering drugs. Jay’s cholesterol, on the other hand, is 123. To put that in perspective, the average meat-eating American’s cholesterol is 210, while the average vegan’s cholesterol is 133.

When my stepfather had a serious heart attack last December, his doctor told him two things: 1) You’re very lucky to be alive (the type of heart attack he had is referred to as a “widow maker”), and 2) A vegan diet is the healthiest. While he hasn’t gone fully vegan, he’s significantly reduced his consumption of animal products and increased the amount of vegetarian foods he eats. When you consider that vegetarians live longer, have a significantly reduced risk of many chronic diseases (including heart disease), and don’t smell when they’re old, going vegan seems like a no-brainer to me—especially if you can still eat delicious cake.

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As someone who has an unhealthy love of food, I was really looking forward to being able to “eat for two” in pregnancy. Imagine my sorrow when I learned that pregnant women really only need an additional 300 calories or so—and only in the second half of pregnancy. WTF? So uncool.

My sorrow didn’t last long, as I was wracked for several long months with “all-day sickness” (another lie: morning sickness—it’s not just for mornings!) and couldn’t keep down much more than oatmeal and, on a really adventurous day, apple sauce (sprinkled with ginger instead of cinnamon, in a desperate and ill-fated attempt to fight the nausea naturally).

Skip ahead to months five through nine, when I could finally eat like a real person. I tend to gravitate toward foods in the starch and fat family (potato chips are the perfect food), but I knew that I’d be setting my kid up for a lifetime of obesity if I snacked on nothing but garbage all day. I’ve already been down the fat path and don’t really want to go back. Before I went vegan six years ago, my cholesterol was 250 (which, incidentally, was also about how much I weighed—fine, perhaps, if I were 8 feet tall, but at 5′6″, not so good), and I definitely wanted to give my kid the best start I could.

Since I don’t eat artery-clogging, disease-causing animal flesh, I felt like I had a pretty strong head-start on the whole “eating well” thing, but here are a few tips and tricks I eventually settled on:

1) Hummus and baby carrots are my friends. Hummus is packed with protein and healthy fats, and carrots have all that great vitamin A (they’re the best source of it, actually, unless you’re super keen on eating liverwurst, animal livers, or cod liver oil. Mmmmm, tasty!).

2) Soy milk is easy, fast protein. Starbucks will sell me a lovely bucket of steamed soy milk for a few bucks when I forget to go to the grocery store and buy my own.

3) Woman cannot live on pasta alone, but she can add a few Nate’s frozen “meat”-balls and make a nice balanced dinner.

4) Go back to the basics. Peanut butter and jelly on whole-wheat bread with a little apple sauce cup and a handful of raw vegetables is a good lunch, not to mention easy and cheap. On a fancy day, I’ll do Tofurky with Vegenaise, pickles, and tomato.

5) You can make a nutritious and protein-packed smoothie (if you’re veg, people will hound you even more about the protein than they did before you got pregnant—brace yourself) in about five seconds. Here’s my friend Dawn’s recipe (makes two):

2-4 bananas
4-7 leaves of fresh kale, stripped from the stalk
A big spoonful of peanut or almond butter
Soy milk

If you really want to make something with more than four ingredients (might as well relish it now, because I hear that after the baby is born, there’s no time for that kind of nonsense), you can add any of the following:

A few big spoonfuls of soy yogurt
Crushed red pepper, to taste
A dash of vanilla extract
4 tablespoons of flaxseeds (grind them first, if you can)
Small spoonful of maple butter or syrup
Half an avocado
4 dates or figs (soaked first)
Walnuts
Frozen strawberries

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Recently, I realized that I’ve been living around vegans for too long. I used to regularly attend events where corpses and cheese-laden dishes were the norm and many people thought “veganism” was a type of rash. Several years ago, when I was still in college, you couldn’t stop me from talking to people about factory farming, how milk causes osteoporosis, and why vegans rarely have heart attacks—if it had to do with why people shouldn’t eat animals, I wanted to talk about it. Now, I rarely talk to people who aren’t already vegan, and when I do, it can be rather frustrating. I get a little exasperated when I hear “But I need protein” or “I just love steak,” and I would rather roll my eyes than engage them in conversation.

Obviously, this sort of attitude isn’t good for helping animals, so I try to muster a smile and politely explain that I eat all sorts of wonderful foods and, as you can see from my hips, I clearly don’t starve. The unfortunate reality is that after a while, it can get draining to have to explain why you don’t eat rotting flesh (as if this should require an explanation), to keep a sunny face while someone makes a disgusted frown and sniffs at your perfectly delicious tofu dish at a church potluck, and to be the best advocate for animals that you can be.

Luckily for all of us, PETA VP Bruce Friedrich wrote a great guide to being an effective advocate a few years back, and it offers a ton of excellent responses to common questions and comments. Here are my own personal responses to two common questions:

They ask: What do you eat?

I say: I eat everything! Last week I had enchiladas, calzones, and faux-chicken Caesar salad. Tonight I’m having barbecue tofu and brownies! It’s so easy to make a vegan version of my favorite foods, and my diet has way more variety now than it did when I ate animals.

They say: I could never give up cheese. How do you live without it?

I say: I’m from Wisconsin, so giving up cheese was a big deal for me. But I found that once I stopped eating it, not only did I not notice it was missing, it also started to be really unappealing. I’ve had enough cheese-free burritos, veggie burgers, pizzas, and macaroni to know that all cheese really adds is fat and cholesterol. The vegan versions not only taste better but are also better for me.

What are some of your favorite responses to those inquiring, meat-eating minds?

“No, I’m not getting rid of my dogs
when the baby is born.”

At times throughout my pregnancy, I considered getting a signboard to wear around my neck with the following information:

1) end of July

2) boy

3) I haven’t told my mother what I’m naming my child, so I’m probably not going to tell you either.

Also, I swear to you, if one more person asks me how I’m feeling, I’m going to start telling the truth. And do you think the truth is pretty? It’s not. (Hint: It’s July, in Norfolk, and I’m carrying around a furnace that displaces my internal organs.) For the most part, people probably mean well and I should be nicer, but there are two questions that I’ve been asked that make me want to spew fire. So please pay attention—these are my final answers:

1) No, I’m not getting rid of my dogs when the baby is born. I know I can be abrasive, but am I an evil, cold-hearted witch? I’d like to think not. Clyde and Emma are our canine children—our responsibilities—and we love them dearly. When we adopted them, it was for better or for worse—for as long as they live—and what in the world would make me think that it’s OK to go back on that promise? People who give away their animals piss me off. If you’re not prepared to make a 20-year commitment to Fluffy or Fido, don’t bother taking them home in the first place, you selfish jerk.

2) Yes, I’ll be raising my kid on a vegan diet. It’s weird, ’cause no one really questions whether I’ll be taking him to church every Sunday. Hello! Not eating animals is kind of an ethical cornerstone for Giehl and me—you know, because eating animals contributes to horrific cruelty, human starvation, my own poor health (someday I’ll post fat pictures, but not today), and global warming. Did I mention that I’m carrying a furnace in my belly? Please, for the love of all that’s holy, help lower the planet’s temperature, thanks. It’s a scary world to bring a kid into—the least I can do is ensure that he’s got the moral and spiritual foundations to leave it in a better state than it was when he arrived.

Are we clear? Good.

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Confession time! I was married to a meat-eater … until one day, at a dog walk fundraiser for the animal shelter where my husband and I volunteer, a nice man offered us vegan sandwiches and a pamphlet about factory farming. By the time he finished looking through it, my husband had decided to go vegetarian and has never looked back. So if your partner still hasn’t realized that meat is murder, take heart. Your beloved could see the light any day. For now, here are some tips to (hopefully!) make that day come sooner.

• If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is priceless. Many people have kicked the meat habit … ahem … cold turkey after watching “Meet Your Meat” or “Chew on This.”

• Show your mate that going vegetarian doesn’t mean going without by stocking your freezer and fridge with “tasty vegan meat alternatives.

• Look through vegetarian cookbooks or online recipes together and pick out some recipes that sound good to both of you. Then whip up a new vegan dish together one night a week.

• Don’t like to cook? Treat your sweetie to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant—or, since almost all restaurants these days have tasty vegan options—encourage your partner to sample a bite of what you’re having. He or she just might order it next time!

• Stay positive. When the topic of vegetarianism comes up, talk about how good it feels to know that you’re helping animals every day—and how good it feels to fit into your old jeans again! Focusing on your feelings will help you avoid sounding “preachy.”

• When holidays or birthdays come around, ask your beloved to go vegan for a week as a “gift” to you. They won’t have to stress about shopping, and animals will be saved—everyone wins.

• Casually “misplace” some vegetarian pamphlets somewhere that your sweetie will stumble upon them. Hey, it worked for me!

• Encourage any step in the right direction. If your partner is considering giving up chicken or switching to soy milk, tell him or her how cool you think it is and how proud you are of him or her (surprising your sweetie with a plate of Boca Chik’n Nuggets or a soy milk shake couldn’t hurt, either). Never berate a budding vegetarian for not going “all out” overnight.

• Ply your partner with Tofutti Cuties. Seriously.

• Most of all, be patient and understanding, and never criticize or lay a guilt trip on your sweetie. Remember that most vegetarians are former meat-eaters. Just relax and set a positive example. Every day, your compassionate choices remind your loved one just how easy (and yummy!) it is to live cruelty-free.