The Mother Load

Since I have readers all over the country (and a few in other countries), I usually try to keep my product reviews accessible to a mass audience.  Today, however, I feel the need to hearken back to the Mother Load's Southern Utah roots.

In 2006, I suddenly (and despite ALL of my best efforts) became a single mother of the five children I'd had with my first husband.  As most single moms do, I struggled to find ways to keep up with the demands of work, home, childrearing, and managing a very lean budget.  Lean is putting it nicely.  My friend, Becca, a single mom herself with a bit more to work with, had this to say: "I don't know how you live like that.  Dryer sheets are not luxury items, Sarah!"

One of the greatest challenges facing any single mother is how to keep the children actively involved in activities that are financially out of reach.  Sports teams, lessons, and groups all provide learning and growing opportunities and help kids build confidence and self esteem, both highly important in the wake of a divorce.  I desperately needed a place for my kids to learn and grow, but I had no idea how I would pay for it.

Enter a kind group of neighbors, looking to build their client base at the new karate studio they'd just opened.  They were people I counted as friends.  Learning I had three black belts living feet from my door made me count them as bodyguards.  Having them offer me a drastically discounted rate for my four children to attend karate classes made them my heroes.

One of these friends emailed me last week and shared that he was still in the martial arts business and again looking to grow his client base and take his studio to the next level.  He asked if there was anything a powerful blogger could to do help him out.

Here's what you need to know about me.  Call me a powerful blogger, and I will do ANYTHING for you.  Also, treat me with kindness during one of the toughest trials of my life, and I will spend the next four years looking for a way to make it up to you.  My response was an immediate and enthusiastic, "ABSOLUTELY!"

Mother Load readers, there is nothing in the world more satisfying to me than to tell you today that I think BMAF Martial Arts in Santa Clara, UT, is the most awesome Awesome Product I will review all year.  If you live in the Southern Utah area and you want your kids to learn discipline, respect, confidence, and self defense, this is the studio where they will learn it.

BMAF employs a highly experienced team of instructors who share in the teaching experience and are committed to helping the students they teach become successful.  And you know what?  Even though they probably won't be handing out the deal they gave me all those years ago, BMAF Martial Arts has the lowest prices in the Southern Utah area, making their martial arts training affordable on almost any budget.

The folks at BMAF Martial Arts teach classes for kids ages 3-5, 6-12, 13-17, and 18+.  That's right, moms and dads. You can learn too.  Basic classes start at $40 a month.

The studio is open Monday through Saturday and is located at 2305 Santa Clara Drive Suite F in Santa Clara.  They're located next to the Dominoes (the very Dominoes that saved my life more than a few times with a delivery on a rough day) in the former ATA school location.  For more information, or to sign your karate kid up, call 435-767-1703.

If you live in Southern Utah and have kids, make that call.  If you live in Southern Utah but don't have kids, find someone who has kids and tell them to make the call.  If you don't live in Southern Utah, but you know someone who does, call them and tell them to make the call.  If you don't live in Southern Utah and you don't know a soul there, check out an online phone book and call random numbers and tell them to make the call.

Or...help me return the kindness so generously given to me, and post the link to this Awesome Product review on your Facebook wall and spread the news to your friends and have them do the same.  Let's show BMAF Martial Arts just how powerful this mild mannered blogger really is.  Are you ready, BMAF?  I hope you are!

(Thanks to the great people at BMAF Martial Arts for helping me provide a firm foundation of confidence for my kids during a difficult time.  And...for being Awesome.)