Overwhelmed by Options To Make My Life Easier

As a stay-at-home mum, I am always looking for ways to simplify my life. I find that there are so many ways to stay organized and ‘on top of things’ that I spend more time finding ways to get organized than I do being organized.

Since I was pregnant with my now almost 3 year old I have found myself having difficulties with short-term memory, feeling overwhelmed and not being able to multi-task well, and getting frustrated with myself. So I have tried to use all sorts of methods to overcompensate for the loss. I have tried to develop good filing systems in my home and duplicate the same thing for my online documents and my computer based documents. Now I have ended up with things in two or three different places and as a result have more things to file and more places to look for things. This has been a big time waster and not very efficient.

The same goes for things I want to reference to later. I create bookmarks on my computer pages and folders on my computers and notes in my home…. and again… I start to feel more overwhelmed trying to keep up with the systems that I have put in place to help me.

I really enjoying finding and creating new systems. I am fascinated by the technology being used, the simplicity and design of some programs, applications or techniques. I have found Google to be my favorite so far. They grow their services based on the users needs and I find that as soon as I find something lacking in their services, they have fixed it. From Googles email (Gmail) that helps me to organize my email, contacts and tasks. They allow me to use labels to organize my mail, groups to organize my contacts and various different ways to customize and display everything. This is a great system on its own, but used with my calendar, the service becomes leaps and bounds better. Now I can add an event in my calendar and invite people to the event seamlessly from with the calendar interface or from my email.  Using my contact list and groups to add invitees to the event. I can share calendars with my husband so that we can both schedule events and not have scheduling conflicts. Then we discovered Google Docs, Google Voice, Google Bookmarks, GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE.  More projects, all by the same company (making it easy to learn other services with knowledge of one of their services) and linked to me (sharing my contacts, calendars, and everything else).

I have used SO many other companies, services, and systems like Remember the Milk, GTD, Evernote, OmniFocus and the list goes on and on. They are all great services and have a lot to offer, but I have not found one thing that works for me in so many different areas of my life. Google Docs allows me to create documents, spreadsheets, forms and more that I can add to email, share with others, embed on a website, label (file) and find easily, email to contact groups, allow others to edit and so much more…

Google Voice allows me to make phone calls and text message, have a new number that I use just for google, attach call widgets to websites that each have their own unique outgoing voicemail message. Google also has Google Wave that allows me to have online meetings with multiple people even if we are not all online at the same time. It is like a chat room mixed with an email mixed with a shared, editable document. It also has great add-ons that gives meetings more flare, like extensions that allow you to create multiple things that people can vote on, allow people to put in their lunch requests, add maps, travel planners and more…

Clearly I get carried away with the technology and like to learn about things that I do not even need – but I also like to share what I learn with the people around me – because I never know what things may simplify their lives.

I am now considering buying an android phone to complete my Google Obsession but I am not sure I am ready to move on from my iPhone….but I will keep you posted.

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Borys Burnayev at 07:06 on 11 March 2010

If you do decide to go Android you are welcome to check out ActionComplete. It's a GTD-inspired to-do organizer that ...

Cupcake Chef

Check out new site CupcakeChef.Com

Great project. I learned how to make a blog serve as a website, add slideshows, PDF downloads, make online magazines, design a subscription and newsletter through a blog and so much more.

Since this post  made 11/16/09 I have learned even more and continue to research best ways to use Word Press blogs and plugins. Since the CupcakeChef makes healthy cupcakes and is also a food artist, we wanted a way to best display her photos. I found a really great plugin that was really easy to use that creates thumbnails of all the pictures and then allows you to turn your photos into a great looking slideshow. I also took a boring media kit and designed the pages to look almost as good as the cupcakes but also turn them into a very cool looking flip book with self-turning pages. The flip book also allows you to print and download the media kit. I used the same technology to create a holiday card and temporarily make the holiday card the home page of the blog site – also with self-turning pages. It is a nice function that makes the site so much more exciting. I learned how to insert downloads into posts so that the reader can download images, pdfs, recipes, place cards and more from the site.

I had a lot of fun learning how to get the newsletter to work. It is great. People can sign up for the newsletter on the blog or can be entered manually into the site. The newsletter can be written from scratch or can be a blog post that is send out with a header and footer that I created. It is really a great plugin and very customizable. I was so wonderful to send out the newsletter and then get it in my email – open it up and be proud of the way it looks.

Please check out the site and give me your feedback – I would love to hear from you.

The Claim: Cinnamon Oil Kills Bacteria – NY Times

The Claim: Cinnamon Oil Kills Bacteria

The New York Times

Anahad O’Connor

September 7, 2009

In a country obsessed with germs and sickness, antibacterial soaps and sanitizers are becoming more and more common. But because such products contribute to the growing problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, some researchers recommend sanitizers made with cinnamon oil, which has been shown in many studies to have powerful antimicrobial properties.

A recent study by a team of surgeons, for example, found that a solution made with cinnamon oil killed a number of common and hospital-acquired infections, like streptococcus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. The study found it was just as effective as several antiseptics widely used in hospitals. Another study by French researchers in 2008 had similar results, showing that at concentrations of 10 percent or less, cinnamon oil was effective against Staphylococcus, E. coli and several antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

READ MORE

Latest Additions to Caleb’s Site

There have been updates to Bocababyupdate.com ….. check out the new photo pages, blog and special events.

If you are interested in a website for your child …

please contact daniele@trevaco.com and check out Trevaco.com and sliiide.com

http://bocababyupdate.com/Boca_Baby_Update/Blog_09/Blog_09.html

http://bocababyupdate.com/Boca_Baby_Update/Pics_09/Pics_09.html

http://bocababyupdate.com/Boca_Baby_Update/Special_Events/Pages/rs_hsnh,_2009.html

Supporting Small Businesses That Support The Community

The Cupcake Chef (www.cupcakechef.com) does amazing things in her local community and is also giving back to the community that she grew up in. Here is what Aly has to say about the CupcakeChef…

I would like to nominate The Cupcake Chef for this amazing opportunity that Shinealight and Nbc are providing. The cupcake chef is a small bakery based out of Delray Beach,Florida, but what it lacks in size, it more then makes up for in heart, drive, passion, determination and dedication that is unrivaled and unmatched. The owner Ursula Rafer has spent countless hours using a percentage of the proceeds she gets from her all natural, vegan and sugar free cupcakes to create a food drive that helps local children get after school snacks…some who would not even be able to eat at all without these kind of donations. In addition to dedicating herself to make sure that these children are safe and fed, she also takes great pride in making sure that all of the packaging for her baked goods is biodegradable, as well as volunteers what little time she does have with a number of environmental organizations trying to ensure a better,safer and cleaner world for all of us. Ursula is a true inspiration inside and outside of the kitchen and I know if she was to receive this grant and amazing opportunity, it would not only help out the business she has worked so hard to build, but it would be paid forward a million times over and benefit not only our earth, our community, the children, but anyone who is lucky enough to meet this one of a kind girl.

Ursula gives back to New Orleans, LA her hometown and also does so much to support Palm Beach, Broward and Miami/Dade County by working with environmental groups, ecofriendly suppliers and products, supporting charities that help to feed people in this area.

Another person added…The Cupcake Chef, owned by Ursula Rafer is a wonderful business. This business is strongly based upon Ursula’s personal beliefs which puts health, community and art first – in everything that Ursula does. Ursula is an artist with a vivacious personality – people love to be around her. Ursula is committed to giving parts of her profits back to her local community and the community she was raised in, New Orleans, LA. Beyond that, Ursula also makes sure that all her beautiful and delicious cupcakes are sugar-free, gluten-free and low-fat. Ursula has taken great steps to ensure that her ingredients, packaging, suppliers etc are eco-friendly and makes even further attempts to support businesses that donate/support charities. Ursula has started a food drive in south florida and is involved in a number of projects to improve the environment and bring aid to the needy. I suggest checking out this small business that has not been in business that long but is already making big and positive changes locally.

Please support this local business – so it can continue to support others……..goto www.cupcakechef.com and click on Nominate Me Link or goto http://shinealight.ivillage.com/nominees and search for cupcakechef and view profile and then click ‘endorse this story’ on the left.

Thank you for supporting this great company.

Is Hand Sanitizer Harmful to Children?

I love hand sanitizer. I use it all the time and always feel like my hands are getting super clean without having to be washed as often which dries my skin. Today however, I got an email forward about how hand sanitizer may be dangerous to use on kids. I have sanitized my sons hands once maybe twice with hand sanitizer but it is not my preferece to use on him. I want him to learn how to wash his hands properly using soap and water and sanitizer always seemed like a harsh alternative on such a little person.

Here is the email that I was sent…..

Yesterday, my youngest daughter, Halle who is just 4 years old, was rushed to the ER by her father for being severely lethargic and incoherent in her classroom. He was called to her school by the school secretary who said that she was ‘very very sick’!

He told me that when he arrived at her classroom, Halle was barely sitting in the chair. She couldn’t hold her own head up and when he looked into her eyes, she couldn’t focus them. He immediately scooped her up and rushed her to the closest ER, and then called me. When he got there, they ran blood test after blood test and did x-rays, every test imaginable. Her white blood cell count was normal, nothing was out of the ordinary. When I arrived at the ER, the doctor there told us that he had done everything that he could do so he was transferring her to Saint Francis Hospital for further tests.

Right as we were leaving in the ambulance, her teacher arrived at the ER and told us that after questioning Halle’s classmates, she had found out that our little girl had licked liquid hand sanitizer off of her hands!!!

Hand sanitizer, of all things. But is makes sense. These days they have all kinds of different scents and flavors and when you have a curious child, they are going to put all kinds of things into their mouths.

When we arrived at the Saint Francis’ Hospital ER, we told the ER doctor there to check her blood alcohol level, and yes we did get weird looks, but the did it. The results showed her blood alcohol level was .85 – six hours after we first took her. There’s no telling what it would have been if we would have requested it at the first ER.

Since then, her school and a few surrounding schools have taken the liquid hand sanitizers out of all the lower grade classes, but what’s to stop middle and high schoolers from ingesting this stuff? After doing research on the Internet, we found out that it only takes about 3 squirts of the stuff ingested to be fatal to a toddler. For her blood alcohol level to be so high, it would be like someone her size  drinking120 proof liquor. So PLEASE  PLEASE don’t disregard this because we don’t ever want another family to go through what ours has gone through.

This can also be verified on truth or fiction, see below…
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/h/hand-sanitizer..htm
This story was verified at: (http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/sanitizer.asp )

After reading this email – and checking the links to truthorfiction.com and snopes.com I felt compelled to write about this. My favorite product for keeping my little monkeys hands clean are Wet Ones – I ALWAYS carry baby wipes and Wet Ones. Wet Ones are the little wipes you get when you eat ribs. They are perfect for cleaning hands, faces, feet, whatever and are antibacterial. There also come in different containers that make it easier to use and carry.

Thieves Waterless Hand Purifier

Thieves® Waterless Hand Purifier is an all-natural hand purifier designed to cleanse and refresh the hands. Thieves Waterless Hand Purifier can be used by adults and children to keep hands clean and promote good hygiene, without the use of water. Dermatologist tested.

iTwitter Application for Iphone

I noticed that itwitter was trending today on Twitter. I went to the app store on my iphone and saw that iTwitter was a free application and I downloaded it to check it out.

I was actually quite impressed. So far I have used Twitterific, iTwitter, TweetDeck, Twittelator, and TwitterFon.

The thing that I like most about Twitterific is that it gives me all the trending topics on twitter  but I am not that happy with this application for anything else. It has improved with some of the updates but it is still slow and the interface is not great. I do like that I can take personal notes on people but I personally have no use for this feature.

TweetDeck for iPhone is a great way to sort your friends updates by categories. This is great especially if you have a lot of people who you follow. I sort mine by friends, twitter friends, techie posts, news posts, and celebrities. On of the best features is that you can save your tweetdeck settings from your desktop and log in to your iphone and it will remember your settings/categories. I am still not a huge fan of the interface of this application.

Twittelator Lite does not appear to have any features that set it apart from the other applications. Twittelator creates groups that include favorites, bookmarks, searches, my tweets but the interface again is awkward. This does have an easy way to tag your current location on tweets and adding photos are easy either directly from the camera or from the iphone photo library.

TwitterFon is so far my favorite application. It is so easy to use and the interface is simplistic yet useful. The icons on the bottom are for friends ( a list of tweets from all the people who you follow), mentions ( a list of all tweets that include @your name), messages (a list of all direct messages that you have received), favorites, and a search button. All new tweets are listed in a different color so that it is easy to identify new tweets from previously read tweets. Tapping on a the persons icon on a tweet, opens a new window that allows you to reply to the tweet, delete the tweet, add a picture/take a picture, add a person. If you click on the tweet itself, a new window opens that shows the tweet, the user who posted the tweet, a button to reply, send a direct message, retweet, and a button to goto the users entire timeline and an area where you can get more information about the person who posted the tweet.

iTwitter has a great look to it. When you first open the application it is light and bright. It creates groups like Home (same as home on Twitter, a list of tweets from people you follow), mentions. direct messages, favorites, nearby tweets, updates (tweets made by you),  a search feature, a quick link to people you follow and people who follow you. A number count is give so that you can immediately how many new tweets you have in any of these categories. Once you open one of these groups, there are four buttons at the bottom. A refresh button, a mark as read button, delete button and write button. You can touch the users profile icon to reveal a pop-up window that tells you how many updates that person has made, how many people they follow and how many follow them.  A button to follow or unfollow them, and a button to direct message them. Click off the window anywhere to close it. Click on the tweet itself to follow links or @users, reply, retweet, or mark as favorite. I like the interface on this and so far I could see myself using this as much if not more than my favorite TwitterFon.

Please feel free to add your personal thoughts or questions regarding any of these applications or any others that I have not mentioned. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

Joan Parker at 17:04 on 23 July 2009

Thanks for posting about this, I would love to read more about this topic.

Zashkaser at 21:17 on 5 August 2009

Hi, good post. I have been woondering about this issue,so thanks for posting. I’ll definitely be coming back to your ...

Tragedy In Life and Death

When I found out that Michael Jackson had passed away , I was still in shock from hearing about the death of Farrah Fawcett. both these celebrities have been icons in my lifetime. These are both larger than life characters.

Farrah Fawcett was a beautiful woman who is remembered for her role in Charlie’s Angels, her perfect 80’s hair, a poster of her in a swimsuit that captures a brilliant smile and that 80’s hair but she was also ridiculed for being ‘quirky’ and there were rumors that she was on drugs. Michael Jackson was a brilliant singer, dancer, performer, entertainer and although I am not a MJ fan, I am still in awe of his work and the impact that he had on others.

The dark side of MJ is far more disturbing than that of Farrah Fawcett’s. Michael Jackson seemed to have some mental health problems that included body dysmorphia.

To say that Michael Jackson was ‘quirky’ is laughable because MJ’s problems were far more serious than ‘quirky’ and it was apparent to all.

Michael Jackson had legal problems that were further evidence to the troubles in his life. Guilty or innocent of the crimes he was accused of, both show evidence of how truly troubled this poor gentleman was. I do not claim to know anything about what was going on in Michael Jackson’s life. If he was a child molester, if he was a drug addict, if he had the surgeries he denied having – I know nothing other than the glimpses I could see of pain, isolation, and a troubled mind/soul. Not unlike Anna Nicole Smith.

I clearly remember being at work one day. I was working in a residential drug treatment center and we could hear a lot of sirens and commotion from the main street near us. The clients quickly found out that the commotion was Anna Nicole Smiths body being removed from the Hard Rock Casino across the street from us. This event had a profound effect on myself and the clients who immediately knew that her death was drug related. Many of my clients were in treatment because someone had forced them into treatment or they were in treatment to appease someone, only a small percentage are usually serious about getting sober. Here is this woman, across the street, that nobody stopped. Nobody intervened. Anna Nicole was also clearly disturbed. The media joked about her weight gain and loss, her being intoxicated all the time, her life was entertainment to us because it was so disturbing.  

Could Michael Jackson or Anna Nicole’s death have been prevented by people stepping in and intervening? Are there other people in the media who we can all see are heading towards disaster and if so, do we have an obligation to these people?

What about people closer to us? Family members, neighbors? If I feel that my neighbor is a harm to him or herself is that something to gossip about or do I have a duty to do something? At what point do we step in and help and at what point to we look in the opposite direction?

They Grow Up So Fast

I can not believe how long it has been since I last posted anything. I have been very sick with one thing and then another. The last thing being a dental abscess. I have know had the beginning of a root canal and have to have that completed and may have to have another root canal. Meanwhile, I actually spent three days in bed where I barely saw my son at all. I am not sure how working mothers do it. I understand that there is a need – we are stressed all of the time about finances and the phone rings constantly with people wanting money from us that we do not have. However, in three days – my son changed and grew and I am not sure how people work and focus on anything outside of their child. I guess I am overly obsessed. My son just gains new words so quickly and new ways of seeing and interacting with his world. He is a gentle and loving child who takes care to feed his stuffed ‘friends’ and brush their teeth. He birthday party rapidly grows closer and July 11th he will be two years old. I cannot help but think about what I have done wrong, mistakes that I have made, what I would do differently – and then I remind myself to also focus on what I have done right and things I can give myself credit for.

I think my biggest regret of all – is that I am overweight and lack energy and therefore do not take my son outside enough. I think he needs to go out every day and let off some steam and run around. Get fresh air and sunshine. It is SOOO hot outside that it turns me into a whinny baby. We do not have a back yard and we live in Florida. Most of our troubles come from him being mischievous or frustrated because he is confined indoors. When I do take him out, we have a great time.

My hats go off to all those mothers that went back to work and have been able to maintain their focus after having a child.

Sara at 17:43 on 23 June 2009

Pretty nice post. I just came across your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your ...

Sara at 19:10 on 25 June 2009

Loved your latest post, by the way.

iPhone survives childhood

As I have mentioned earlier (‘Mummy loves iPhone’ April 17th, 2009), my iPhone has great applications for my son. It is always a great distraction when I need it also. My son loves to dance to Jared , listen to Lily and Stella  story, and play with bubbles but he loves to put my phone in his mouth, drool on it, hit my phone against things and with things and various other methods of abuse.  I have bought various accessories to save my phone from myself and my son. Some have proven to be iphone saving accessories. My husband found a great phone case for me. It is a hard shell but it feels soft and rubberized. It has a screen cover on it and a slide-on back so it keeps my phone as dry as possible, as enclosed as possible, and pretty safe from my sons ‘drumming lessons’. The case is best at keeping my screen clean from grubby little hands. Munchkin is not allowed to play with my phone unless it has some kind of case on it.

My biggest fear happened more recently when my son decided to include my phone in his percussion playing with the metal weights from our vertical blinds. I managed to get the phone away from him almost immediately but not before he left several gashes or dents in the screen. I was so upset when I first saw the marks / dents because I did not know how we were going to find the money to fix or replace the phone. Upon further investigation, I realized that ALL of the impact from the metal weights were absorbed by my screen protector that I had convinced my husband was a good purchase even though I was not entirely sure myself – but it was cheap enough and thought it may extend the life of my screen. I am so pleased with that decision now I can not even begin to tell you.

Would love to hear what accessories and applications you find useful with your family.