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.

Maven Says: Let's Get Ready for First Grade!

I’ll admit it, sometimes I struggle not to be Competimommy when it comes to school, not that I brag to others, its just that I want PDQ to do well at school and sometimes am overly focused on how well. Living in a very educationally focused area I have had moments of did I do the right thing only doing part-time preschool and should we have done more to get her ready for school? I worry at times about her being in one of the few remaining schools in the area with only half-day Kindergarten (they will all be full day next year). It is definitely a struggle around here some days to focus on the important stuff and not get caught up in the production of the perfect kid. When she told me a few weeks ago that she hates reading my heart almost stopped. I love to read, I don’t know what I’d do without books to lose myself in or find out more about whatever it is that suddenly I need to know more about. All year I’ve struggled with letting it come to her in her own time and not pushing her, trying to find fun ways to help her progress. So with that backdrop, I set out to take a look at Let's Get Ready for First Grade!

My anxiety was eased a bit when she came to me in the shower the other day wanting to know how to do a sheet in a workbook of course only I could answer it, wet and naked, because she didn’t want to bother Daddy. She has also been carrying around Let’s Get Ready for First Grade! by Linda Desimowich and Stacey Kannenberg from Cedar Valley Publishing. Along with it she’s armed with her trusty dry erase marker. The book reviews all of the concepts that are needed for first grade. As I went through the book by myself I was a little surprised with how much kids need to know for first grade but confident in knowing that when I have been in the classroom or seen papers that come home almost all of the concepts in the book have been covered. The three exceptions may be the solar system, branches of government and some of the internal organs—between Gman and I we’ve got a pretty good grip on those things.

The book has a friendly looking teacher character, Mrs. Best, who along with Yodie the coyote and six of her students guide you through the book. The reminder at the beginning of the book that each child is unique and progresses at his or her own pace was a good one for me as well. PDQ loves the write on, wipe off part of the book. She really does like to experience a book not just with reading but with writing and making it hers. Click here to take a look inside. Spending time with my daughter and the Let’s Get Ready for First Grade! book has made me calm down a bit about her readiness—obviously she soaks up a lot of information during the day and can tell me all about it, especially when presented in a fun format that doesn’t feel like “work.”

Let’s Get Ready for First Grade! won the Teacher’s Choice Award from Learning Magazine in 2007 and I have to agree that it’s a great addition to our book collection. I liked it so much I will definitely find the Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten book as my younger daughter gets ready to make that step. The material is presented in a fun way, there is interaction and it’s a good way for parents to check in with what their kids already know and where they might need some help. I can also see it being a great resource for talking your child’s teacher.

So, if you think one of the Let’s Get Ready books might be what you are looking for, head over to The Parent Bloggers Network site and leave a comment, you will be entered into a drawing to win the set of books. Best of luck to you!

Maven Says (with help from Abby): BrainQuest Gets a Big Thumbs Up!

As soon as the Brain Quest DVD game arrived at our house my daughter was begging to play. In the box were the DVD and a small deck of quiz cards. We popped the DVD in the player and it started right up with questions. I was a bit surprised expecting a bit of an introduction or some instructions, Abby on the other hand LOVED the fact that there were no previews or other "useless stuff."

Abby turned 6 at the beginning of the month and is in Kindergarten so we were on the entry level for this game targeted at 6-8 year olds in first to third grade. Being on the young end of the age range I expected her to find the majority of the questions difficult. I was pleased that although she didn't know the answer to many of the questions right off the bat, she could figure out the answers to many of them. The biggest barrier to her playing the game independently was her reading level. Although the questions and answers are read aloud, she often needed a second go through to get the answer. For me, this was a bonus as it introduced her to new words and gave her fun opportunities to sound out new words.

I think the Brain Quest game will be great for breaking up the monotony on long car rides--you can only watch so many DVDs. Abby loved selecting the right answers with the remote control so I'm sure the car remote will be a hot new commodity! With 500 randomly selected questions we will be able to play the game for a long time to come.

I enjoyed playing the game along with her, I must admit that there were a few questions about grammar that had me digging deep into the recesses of my memory. As I said before, the DVD starts right up with questions, the control freak in me would have liked a little more instruction before starting up but it didn't bother Abby at all. The other concern was the huge amount of packing material for the contents, having grown up in a house where recycling was king this seemed like a bit of a waste.

We will definitely continue to play the game and it will go on my list of potential party gifts. It is great for boys or girls, has a relatively wide age range, isn't season specific and you don't have to worry about which character is "in" this week exactly the kind of thing I am looking for when a party invitation arrives for a child I don't know well.

Check out the Brighter Minds Media website for more information on the Brain Quest DVD game for 6-8 year olds as well as an edition for older kids, 8-10. I was happy to see something that we could grow into.

Good Night: The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health

When I was pregnant with my youngest the sleeplessness started in my first trimester and pretty much never went away. First it was needing to go to the bathroom every couple of hours all night long, then it was what the OB called hormonal insomnia--his really bad news, when it let up I'd be too uncomfortable to sleep--he was right. So for roughly 9 months I didn't sleep much at all. After Boobah was born it was life with a nursing newborn but infinitely better than it had been, at least I was awake for a reason. Fast-forward 3 years, I have a bum gallbladder, the doctor says it doesn't have to come out right away--so I put it off for nearly a year. Much of that year I was up at night with pain or indigestion. Given those experiences I jumped at the chance to review Dr. Bruess' Good Night.

After the introduction, the beginning chapter of the book discusses the need for good sleep and the most common causes of a sleepless night:
· Anxiety, stress and nervousness
· Caffeine consumption
· Parenting
· Bed partners
· Hormonal fluctuations
· Travel, especially business travel
Knowing that at least 4 of the 6 were issues for me on a regular basis I started the book with great hope for helping with my sleep issues. The first chapter sets up the rest of the book well, introducing the sleep issues and making you want to read more to find out how to cope with them for a good night’s rest.

The next chapter looks at the three most common problems that cause disordered sleep; anxiety and stress, caffeine consumption and gender. For each there is a good overview, a quiz to evaluate your own experiences and an action plan for coping. After that Dr. Brues describes the three people who impact your sleep kids, bed partner and business travel. Having two kids who get up at night semi-regularly and a husband with a snoring problem I was glad to have some new strategies to try and deal with them. My husband and I now have designated nights to get up with the kids instead of waiting each other out to see who gives in first, it is nice to have the expectation that you’ll get up relieved some nights. The other area where my sleep experience definitely needs work is a new bed. My husband has been advocating for a new bed for the last year or so and I’ve resisted due to the cost. Now I am convinced that it is costing us both sleep and that’s not a price worth paying, next week when my folks have the girls we need to head out and shop for a new bed. Thankfully the book has tips for picking out a bed that works for both of you.

The next chapter describes the “Extreme (but Easy!) Bedroom Makeover. I considered our room relatively sleep friendly and we scored well on several points—we keep the house cool at night and we have dark drapes to keep the room dark. We already had it planned so that it wasn’t necessary to turn on lights at night to go to the bathroom and a no flushing plan to keep it quiet. The biggest culprit we need to tackle is keeping the room neater so that the mess doesn’t keep us (or at least me) from a good night’s sleep. I also turned the alarm clocks away from the bed so I wouldn’t clock watch at night and the light wouldn’t bother me when I did wake up.

Dr. Michael Breus spends the next few chapters of the book convincing the reader that the right amount of sleep has a significant effect on our health—maintaining weight, better sex life, and slowing down the aging process. Who wouldn’t want to take advantage of that?! Having struggled with my weight for years and having read some of the newer studies that say that sleep deprivation can heighten the risk for diabetes I was won over on the need for more/better sleep. I think the action plans in the preceding chapters have set me up for moving closer to the goal of a good night’s sleep. I was left envious of the chapter on napping, as a working Mom the chance of fitting a nap into my schedule is pretty slim. I could appreciate the napping advice and the restorative possibilities though.

Finally, I had reached the promised land, the 28-day program for better sleep. As I read the first part of the section on the Sleep Boot Camp I knew I was in trouble. Having started a diet and exercise re-do in the last few months I realized I couldn’t tackle them all at once. I was making other substantial changes in my life and totally re-vamping my sleeping lifestyle was going to cause me more stress than I was already under. I felt ready to tackle the action plans described earlier in the book and make some improvements in my sleep but the 28 day program, at this point in my life, felt like the restrictive diet that cuts out a lot of things that I just wasn’t willing to give up right now—like TV an hour before bed. For now, I am armed with some common sense things that are making a difference in my quality and quantity of sleep. Hopefully if these steps don’t work, in the not so distant future I will be ready to fully tackle my next step to health and wellness—a good night’s sleep through the 28 day plan.

The book is good at laying out causes for not sleeping, a way to self evaluate and provides plans for helping you deal with the problems. There are many interesting sidebars such as myth busters and information about how people sleep around the world. I truly appreciated the recognition that parenting and mothering in particular are hard work. The discussion of gender and hormone issues hit home for me as well. There are many notes and appendices to guide you through the journey to better sleep including Dr. Brues’ website, the insomnia blog and your beauty sleep sites. I would recommend the book to others struggling with sleep making sure to point out that it takes some work and commitment to truly solve your sleep problems. Like so many other things in our lives, you have to be ready to make changes to be successful in reaching your goal.

Maven Says: Blink...and its done!

When I got my box of Blink products I had a master plan. I'd take a picture of my Mommy-mobile and then I'd spiff it up using my nifty new box of cleaning and organizing stuff and give you before and after shots. Then my mother came to visit and I left her in the Mommy-mobile with the kids for 10 minutes after skating lessons to run into the grocery store for milk and bread. When I came out my carefully preserved mess wasn't such a mess any more and my plan had to be revised. I am a working Mom, with 3 & 6 year old girls and 12 & 18 year old stepsons. We spend a lot of time in the Mommy-Mobile, running to the boys' other house (and they sit in the back where no one looks into the seat back pockets for far, far too long), running the girls to school, skating, church, and daycare, just to name a few. We eat, sort mail, watch DVD's, drink coffee, sneeze, and more or less live in the van so there is no shortage of mess

We didn't have any flying lattes, major roadtrips, or mini-disasters, usually a good thing, a bit of a disappointment though when you've got new stuff to try out. Then, I remembered, the big red stain! Not too long ago we moved oldest daughter's booster seat to the back of the van to accomodate an adult in the middle seats. When we moved the booster we found a red mark on the seat and all over the back of the booster. My lame attempts thus far yielded no results.

BEFORE PICTURES

I decided that the Mess Lifters, stain removers were the best ammunition for this particular job. I pulled out the booster and gave it a shot. The stain on the car seat came right off (I will admit they were stain treated 3 years ago when we bought the van). I was surprised, I thought it would take at least a little muscle or leave a bit of a stain but nope, all gone! Then I tackled the booster seat. It took a little more muscle, mainly because there was a LOT more stain. My best guess is red marker that had soaked into the fabric cover. It took two wipes but it got most, if not all of the stain. Certainly enough to keep it from turning my car seat red again!

AFTER PICTURES

Most of the packages come with neat, clips that let you easily store them in the map pocket on the back of your seat. I wasn't too keen on leaving the stain removers or smudge cleaner where little hands were likely to find them but it was perfect for putting the Trash Tossers where I'd use them most. I love the concept of small, garbage bags with a draw string to clean up the debris of a day in the car with the kids. Where were these things when I had kids in diapers?I giggled a little when I read that there was Smudge Cleaners, fingerprint remover. Really, removing finger prints or smudges were the least of my problems, icky sticky week old latte is much more my speed. I did toss the smudge cleaner into the under seat storage area in my van though, its the perfect thing to clean off the dash board or front windshield when I'm sitting in the parking lot at school or waiting in a long drive-up line and with it stashed under the front seat-I can get to it easily.

The Tidy Totes are lime green mesh bags that spoke to me when I pulled them out of the box---oh, a way to organize the stuff in the van pockets. Alas, we haven't been on any trips so I haven't used them other than to put the headphones and remote for the DVD together, in one place, hoping that we could avoid stepping on them, yet again. My one concern is they do seem a bit thin so I'm not sure how they'll deal with being stuffed full of girly toys on long car trips. They should be fine for markers and coloring books though.

I can pretty safely say I wouldn't have picked up the whole suite of products on my first trip out to the store but the Trash Tossers and Stain Lifters are definitely here to stay. The verdict is still out on the other products but I am itching to use them on our trip back from visiting my parents at Easter, I'll update you and know what icky, sticky messes we manage to confront! The products themselves and the packaging are well thought out. They store conveniently--either hanging off the map pocket or in my van neatly tucked away in the under seat drawer. Its a HUGE improvement over my drawer full of recycled grocery bags and towels for unexpected spills. Although targeted at the Mom crowd, I can definitely see them crossing over, my father would love the Smudge Cleaners, he is a bit of a car perfectionist, obviously NOT a trait I inherited!

Although, it may not be what they had in mind for tiding up the car, I love the fact that my underseat drawer went from this...............................To this:

If you have a particularly messy vehicle (and a really cute kid or two won't hurt), don't miss out on your chance to enter the MessMaker contest sponsored by Blink...and its done. The contest runs through April 15!

Watch for More Info On: Good Night

I'm in the process of reading, Good Night: The Sleep Doctor's 4-Week Program to Better Sleep and Better Health by Michael Brues, PhD. I have been in search of a good night's sleep since I got pregnant with Boobah at the beginning of 2003! That's a long time to go without sleep. Check back here on March 29 to hear my take on the book and progress in the 4 week program.

First Review: Good Kids, Bad Habits

Check out my first review over at my main site, Mama Maven. I'll give you the dirt on Good Kids, Bad Habits. After this I'll keep all the reviews over here at Maven Says.