Maven Says: Organize me

I want to be organized, really I do. My Blackberry goes a long way but I just can't seem to keep everything in there. It's great for keeping track of meetings with the big cheese. I've even resorted to sending appointments to Gman for most of the things that I have going on in the evenings but somehow, someway things fall through the cracks. Maybe it has something to do with the serious paper problem that we have in our house--WAY, WAY too much of it and no good way to organize it.

Could that be prince charming riding in a white horse to save me in the form of the new Family Matters line from Day Runner?

Door reminders: These are by far my favorite of the Day Runner Family Matters products. The cute little "reminder men" hang right on the door handle and virtually whisper in my ear as I try to escape the house in the morning. I have them hanging on the front and garage doors so that I don't leave things behind. They are so clever and easy to use--if only they would yell at me, "make sure she has her lunch" on the way out they'd be perfect!

Undated wall planner: I am the queen of dry erase, I use a similar calendar in my office to keep everything straight. I take great joy in actually erasing things. This version has both a traditional calendar as well as a version with days of the month down one side with a column for each person in the family. I can't find a convenient place to hang it in the kitchen/family room which is (dis)organization central at our house. I've decided it does have great potential as a chore keeper-tracker for my girls. I think it will be perfect on the closet door in their room.

Weekly/monthly family planner: I love the idea of this weekly/monthly calendar book with colors and columns assigned to everyone in the family. It also gives you places to note things you need to buy and an address book. Alas, that part of my life I have a pretty good handle on in the electronic world. The book is relatively big and if I can't stuff it in my purse I'm afraid I won't get everything in there. I am notorious for stealing a few minutes in the preschool parking lot at drop off and pick up trying to get things on the calendar!

Coordinating folders and storage bins: These have great potential. Unfortunately we are so far gone in the keeping track of paper department that I haven't quite gotten to getting things in here yet. I love the idea, having sports, school, church folders for the kids in their own storage bin and getting rid of the basket of paper doom really appeals to me. I need the services of that professional organizer I bought at the silent auction three years ago...if only I could find her card!

I love the idea of the Family Matters Day Runner products. I think I've proven to myself yet again that you've got to use things consistently to be organized and somehow, I just can't find the time to get the process established, let alone follow it consistently. For those of you a bit less organizationally challenged, this may be the organizational system you are looking for! For more perspectives, check out what the other parents have to say over at Parent Bloggers.

Maven Says: Its Deceptively Delicious

I am blessed with children who will eat nearly anything. The catch is, they won't necessarily eat the same thing twice in a row. Boobah will clean her plate of broccoli one night and a week later, she's claims she doesn't like it. I try to be calm and not get too hung up on her food intake on any single day, try to offer her a wide variety of foods, and occasionally sneak a little something in on her. My own efforts have been veggies in chili and things like zucchini bread. Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious offers recipes with a little extra nutrition in everything from chocolate cupcakes to beef stew.

Seinfeld (yes the wife of THAT Seinfeld) includes wisdom from parenting experts Jean Mandelbaum and Pat Shimm, a foreward by Mehmet Oz and Roxana Mehran, and a nutrition primer by Joy Bauer to round out her own experiences from feeding a family. Together they offer a well rounded view of feeding your kids healthy food and avoiding food battles. Although most of the books recipes sneak extra veggies into to places you wouldn't expect them, the point is made multiple times that you still need to offer your kids vegetables that they recognize. Eventually most kids will eat them, even if it requires dipping them in something.

Seinfeld's program for adding extra vegetables to food is broken into four sections:

1. Equipping your kitchen
2. Stocking up on staples
3. Making purees
4. Recipes

Her suggestion is to make purees a few at a time, keep the ones you'll use immediately in the fridge and freeze the rest in 1/4 or 1/2 cup portions, labelled in your freezer. This syncs up nicely with my efforts this summer to try and eat fresh local products, it would have been a great idea to make purees in addition to freezing whole veggies. I still have time to catch up with winter squash for recipes like tacos, sloppy joes and grilled cheese! Jessica Seinfeld shared a few of her recipes with Oprah and thus with you too!

I like the physical book itself (I'd love to show you a picture but blogger is being a bit difficult), the hard covered book with an interior spiral binding is set-up is perfectly for use in the kitchen to cook. Its also easy to wipe clean (yeah, I am a really messy cook!). The pictures of the food are beautiful yet approachable. The food isn't so styled that you can't imagine ever making it at home but it still looks incredibly appetizing--even with the extra added veggies. Serving french toast with a small glass of milk and a plastic fork is certainly do-able at my house! The use of bright colors and lots of plaid gives the book a fun retro feel.

If figuring out how to keep your kids well fed without having constant battles at the dinner table is your goal, this may be the book for you. I did have a little struggle with whether or not I should be "hiding" things in my kids foods. I reasoned that I don't tell them what else is in it, so why would I tell them about the cauliflower or butternut squash purees? I probably won't be whipping any cauliflower puree into our morning eggs--we are lucky to be eating cereal or yogurt in the van in the morning--but the other recipes are definitely an easy add to my repertoire.

You can read the thoughts of more bloggers on Deceptively Delicious over at Parent Bloggers.

Maven Says: Listen to the "24-Hour Pharmacist"

Suzy Cohen, America's Most Trusted Pharmacist, with 20 years of experience and many national television and radio appearances and a syndicated column, "Dear Pharmacist" that appears around the world offers up a book, The 24-Hour Pharmacist. The book, published by Collins offers her advice, opinions and cures for looking younger, feeling healthier while saving time and money all in a easy to read format and easy reading style.

As someone who has been fighting insomnia with every treatment from over the counter sleep aids to acupuncture I was interested to see the opinion of a pharmacist since it seems that I have conferred with folks from every other traditional and alternative medicine specialty. Given that, I cheated and started the book with chapter 8: A Nation of Insomniacs: Do You Really Need a Pill to Get a Good Night's Sleep? In this chapter she covers the media onslaught of commercials for prescription sleep aids and gives them credit where its due but suggests there are lots of other things to check out before going that route. She gives names to the various types of insomniac in the down to earth style used throughout the book, I am a long-time "Antenna Head" whose mind goes into re-wind (or sometimes fast forward) when I go to bed and by the time I get to sleep hours later I am mad. I've also had some experience as a "Creepy Crawler" and a "Bed Bugger." Cohen reviews medications, diseases, and hormones that might be keeping you awake and then suggests possible herbal remedies, melatonin, Reishi mushrooms, as well as OTC sleep aids and prescriptions. I was glad to see some of the remedies I have tried, like my nightly lavender scented baths among her suggestions.

Of course having suffered from insomnia for a long time fatigue is also something I've wrestled with so I went back and started at the beginning of the book with Chapter 1: Overcoming Fatigue: From Stupor Woman to Super Woman. Yeah, that sounded right up my alley. In this chapter I had a hard time deciding which of the faces of fatigue was most descriptive of myself--am I a Juggling Janet or Morning Mary, hmmm maybe I'm really Stupor woman. As I read more I was fascinated by the connection with fatigue medications and hormones. I've been using Ashwagandha for the last month or so and it has helped with my insomnia, in this chapter I also learned that it might help with my thyroid function and control blood sugar and cholesterol--nice bonus! I found the easy to understand description of your adrenal glands and what they do really interesting, certainly not something I've heard from my physician or read about anywhere--until now.

The book is divided into five parts:

• Above the Waist



• Above the Neck



• Below the Waist



• And Everything in Between



• Think Outside the Pill

The chapters in these parts cover everything from "toenail crud" to aromatherapy in the same down-to-earth style that makes the book an easy read even if you aren't nearly ready to think about "surge protection for your hot flashes." The book does start with a disclaimer that reminds you that the book is not intended to take the place of appropriate medical care but instead to allow you to explore "all potential options for health and wellness." The end of the book has many resources and references so that you read more and find the products discussed in the book. You can also check out the authors website Dear Pharmacist for more information.

If you are interested in winning your own copy of the book, stop by the Parent Bloggers Network site and leave a comment on the launch of the campaign for The 24-Hour Pharmacist or the mid-campaign round-up this Friday, July 13. You'll be entered to win a copy of the book and a $50 CVS giftcard (who couldn't use that?!).

Maven Says: Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box

Whenever I have an issue, my first thought is to go read all about it--the bookstore, library or the Internet. With one exception, my dirty little secret I typically avoid parenting books. Pretty early on in the parenting gig I figured out that a lot of the books I read made me feel bad about what ever I was doing even when my gut was telling me that it was right. Battling through PDQ the sleepless and trying all those other ideas, I finally decided that the combination of my gut and Gman's many years of experience we'd be okay. That theory has worked pretty well but in my avoidance of reading of the parenting genre I have totally missed Mommy reading. If there were nothing else of value in Ann Dunnewold's book Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box: Cut Yourself Some Slack (and Still Raise Great Kids) in the Age of Extreme Parenting) the reading list I accumulated as I read would be so worth it. The reading list is just the tip of the iceberg though, the real life, common sense tone of this book alternately made me see the silliness of some of my SuperMommy thinking and made me feel better about the majority of my parenting choices, a very fine line when you think about it. Kind of like telling me to go to hades and me wanting to go there!

Right after I agreed to review the book I had the taking time for yourself discussion with a couple of friends and wrote about it here. When the book arrived I immediately carried it up to my room to begin reading. I saw myself in the first pages of the first chapter doing things like staying up all night making the perfect cookies for a preschool party to assuage my Mommy Guilt for working. There have been many occasions where I have not been able to be present at an event and to make myself feel better I have WAY overdone it on the cookies/goodie bag or whatever other thing I've taken on. I always knew it my gut that it was silly but reading it in print made me cringe just a bit and maintain the ability to laugh at myself. The concept of the "perfectly good mom" was introduced and I was hooked. Perfection is impossible, being "clearly good" or "as good as is necessary" are doable and who doesn't want to feel successful as a parent? Life overcame my reading time and I wasn't able to pick the book up for over a week but in that time I must have had half a dozen discussions with other women (and a guy or two) about the concept of not trying to be perfect but perfectly good. It provoked many insightful conversations, particularly with the older, wiser, been-there-done-that women that I am lucky to have in my life. As I finished the book I found that I had worked ahead, the last chapter was about building a strong support network and spreading the word and actively speaking out and standing up for yourself in the insane competition for Mommy of the Century.

Dunnewold explores the messages we are inundated with that encourage us to be perfect. She lays out the traps of overperfecting, over protecting, and overproducing. As I read about these I could certainly see a little of myself and nearly every other Mom I know. Some of us more than others and each with our unique quirky take on the madness. The mantras like, "there are no perfect mothers" and "parenting is not a contest" seem like common sense but for me, and I am sure many others they are easy to forget everyday in the trenches. I appreciated that Dunnewold left room for each of our own idiosyncrasies, we can each have one or two things that we obsess over and if we can just chill out about everything else, that is fine. Its that tone that makes this book a real winner for me, no judgement just showing the reader that what they think is right probably is and its good to follow your mind and heart. In that vein she encourages you to look at your values, know them and follow them.

I would recommend Even June Cleaver Would Forget the Juice Box to anyone who feels the pressure of the Mommy Olympics. There is no us vs. them in this book, I could see the SAHM struggles more clearly and I felt that it represented the issues of the working mom as well. Instead of pitting us against each other Dunnewold calls for us to work together for our health and to raise healthy kids in today's world. I'll offer up just a bit of my own insanity in my posts about staying up until midnight to get into Summer Camp or spending months picking out the "right" preschool and the huge allergic reaction that I wasn't there for. This book reaffirmed for me that I need to chill out, know what I believe in and follow my gut. Interested? Want to hear what someone else has to say? Check out Parent Bloggers Network for 24 other reviews!

Maven Says: Cozi is Cool

When I heard about Cozi Central my first thought was that's nice but not for me, I use Outlook. I decided to go ahead and give it a try to see what advantages it could bring to organizing our lives outside of work mode. Gman and I run our lives by the Outlook calendar, we are both hooked in at work, he has Outlook set-up at home, and I am a card carrying Crackberry addict. When I found out that Cozi had the ability to sync up with Outlook I thought all of my organizational prayers had been answered! I had dreams of everything I needed to know right there on my Blackberry at my side all the time. And serious bonus, FREE. Unfortunately despite some of its great features I didn't reach the organizational nirvana I had imagined.

The Cozi Central web site is visually appealing and easy to use. To personalize it you can add your own pictures and make picture collages. The homepage displays three days on the calendar, the current time in big readable numbers, the shopping list du jour, and any messages you receive at the bottom of the screen. A great overview of what you need, where you are spending your time and what the rest of the family wants you to know right there at your fingertips. You can assign each person in the house a color and the calendar is then color coded so at a glance you know who has to be where and when. A definite improvement over my black and white calendar that requires actual reading.

Okay, back to my Outlook/Blackberry love affair. I downloaded the Cozi toolbar for Outlook and all seemed well. The instructions were easy and the toolbar showed up as expected. Unfortunately I could never make the two sync that I could tell. I did have some appointments show up with a Cozi ID listed when I printed them out. Unfortunately every time I tried to sync Outlook hung up and I ended up having to shut everything down and re-boot my machine. Not totally unexpected for a beta version of a tool for Microsoft or for me, the Tech Support nightmare. Given the issues I've had with my Outlook account in the past and the critical nature of my work calendar being pristine I had to abandon ship on the Outlook/Cozi synchronization. Hopefully when the release is out of beta testing I can take advantage of the great features.

I do love the list feature, go in any time and type in your grocery and warehouse store lists. Then you can e-mail them, print them or access them via phone. My collection of post-it notes don't allow for accessible storage or remote retrieval!

Cozi Central is a great concept for busy households. If it weren't for my work dependence on Outlook I'd use it to run my household in a heartbeat. Given my current technological challenges there are features that I'll take advantage of the opportunity to look at the sweet faces of my kids, keep a running grocery list and retrieve it remotely. Again, its a great FREE service so go check it out and see how it can help you better manage your household activities. I'd love to hear from someone who has been successful in integrating it with and Outlook Exchange account to learn the tricks of the trade.

You can see what other bloggers had to say about Cozi Central by checking in with the Parent Blogger Network campaign.