The Equation:
When I came home from working full time outside the home, I had several interests I wanted to explore with my new-found time (ha.) One of those things was seriously preparing for emergencies. I have a family of four, plus my parents next door make six. The two kids both have special needs, and my parents are elderly and my mom is in very frail health. Between us, we have two homes and their properties to maintain, and 5 running vehicles. In this time of economic crises, both personally (my parents are on a fixed income, and my husband is laid off) and nationally, proven terrorist activity, not to mention natural disasters (we live in wildfire and earthquake country) - I wanted to put together a plan that is more concrete than “3 days of water per person on hand.” That is truly the extent of my emergency preparedness. But if you’ve ever researched preparedness and survival in any depth - you know how daunting and overwhelming it truly is. I’m still stuck, kind of not knowing where to turn first.

When the publishers of Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life
by Neil Strauss contacted me (about several books actually) I jumped at the chance to read this one, and told them to go ahead and send it. When I read up a little bit on the author - I was a little leery. Author of The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, I wasn’t looking forward to a serious take.

PLUS:
This book is chock full of information from a first person account. It makes you think. It really takes you on the author’s journey to KNOW what to do in emergency - to have the supplies, life skills, and experience to survive when it comes right down to it. It was absolutely fascinating to experience it vicariously.

MINUS:
I was looking forward to more “this is what you do” information. This isn’t exactly what I was looking for in terms of resources.

EQUALS:
A neutral/positive review. One the one hand - it’s a GREAT book. I really enjoyed it, and I couldn’t put it down. Mr. Strauss is a gifted writer who really pulls you into the journey. But it’s touted a bit as a resource guide, and this isn’t it. So really, it drops down to neutral from positive - probably because of marketing reasons. It’s marketed wrong. I highly recommend the book, especially if you have any interest in the survival community. And while it’s NOT a resource book, it certainly got me to thinking and doing a lot of research on my own, which I think is an incredibly positive effect.

Update: Interview will now be at 12:10/3:10

As I type this, I’m so nervous my hands are sweating.

I will be on CNN tomorrow. Tomorrow. As in… Tomorrow. I’ll be on satellite with Fredricka Whitfield (CNN Weekend afternoon anchor) and Suzanne Riss from Working Mother Magazine. The gist of the story is the challenges and benefits of working from home, and also turning into the breadwinner of the family (since Poe lost his job.)

I got a broadcast from Hire My Mom, and answered it. And this came of it. Wow.

SO. Tomorrow, Saturday, May 9th at 12:15 pacific, 3:15 eastern. Wish me luck. And hopes that I don’t choke, get the hiccups or talk like a valley girl. And that I don’t make a complete ass out of myself. It’s a big coup for Vineyard, and I don’t want to screw that up.

If you have advice - PLEASE SHARE IT. HALP NEEDED. AND PERHAPS XANAX.

It’s 2:00 a.m. and your three month old is crying…a lot. You’re a first time mother, and while you’ve got a ton of questions, you called your mom at 2:00 in the morning last night about that crazy looking diaper, so you’d really like to get through this one on your own.

Featured Products

Chic and Carry Wristlet - Make mom’s quick trips out with baby much easier with this great product.

Miessence Organics Mothers Day Set - Every mom deserves to be pampered once in awhile, and these organic body products allow her to do just that.

Sara Lee Simply Sweets Pies - Sara Lee’s Simply Sweets line gives you a delicious way to treat Mom this Mother’s Day with a fast, easy and delicious dessert.

Children Should Come With Warning Labels - Patti McKenna offers a humorous take on motherhood, giving mom a chance to laugh, cry, and identify with her tales.

Roundhouse Designs Desktop Mobile - Roundhouse Designs origami mobiles and wall art are handcrafted creations that make a unique Mothers Day gift.

Roundhouse Designs Jewelry - Roundhouse offers a wonderful selection of handmade jewelry, with styles that are perfect for every mother on your list this Mother’s Day.

Heart of A Mother - Heart of a Mother is a gift book filled with touching tributes to Mothers and Grandmothers, inspirational short stories, poems, proverbs and quotations.

Protect-A-Bed - Protect-a-Bed waterproof mattress covers provide protection from allergens, dust mites, and bedbugs, helping to extend the life of your mattress and mom to sleep a little sweeter.

Ultimate Woman Vitamins- Make sure that mom is getting everything she needs to stay healthy and active with the Vitamin Shoppe’s Ultimate Woman vitamins.

More Great Gift Ideas

April Cornell Shoulder Bag

BabyPlus System

Not Just Any Old Day Keyrings

Menu For The Week Subscription

For My Mother Reflection Journal

Vintage Body Spa

No Throw

Me Time Sportswear

Peek-A-Boobs

Kind Notes

Aventine Hill Bath Products

Treadlight Eco Snack Kit

Name Your Tune CDs

Things Remembered Charm Stories

Diaper Clutch

Pedometer

Lia Sophia Riverside Necklace

Lia Sophia Beaujolais Necklace

Lia Sophia Mandalay Bay Necklace

Lia Sophia Athena Necklace

Lia Sophia Love Dust Set

More Great Gift Guides

The Mom Maven

MomECentric

All reviews listed in the Momfluence gift guide were product provided. 

Featured positions were purchased by sponsors.  Member gift guides are not affiliated with
Momfluence. 

I’m a mom, a wife, a daughter, a business owner… I’m busy. So are you. Mornings are, well, difficult I suppose is the word.

Here’s what we do. I get up at 6am to be able to have my coffee and some morning quiet time. I am NOT a morning person. If I don’t have that hour or so before the rest of the house, I get very very grumpy. Then, around 7am I wake the kids up. They know the routine. Into the dining room for breakfast, brush teeth, wash face, feed and water the cats, get dressed, clean up rooms, and make their beds. Then they can do whatever they’d like before going to school. It’s taken a long time to come up with a routine. We’re still working out the kinks.

For example, if the laundry’s not put away - then where are the clothes? Homework didn’t get put away the night before - where’s that? Where’s the lunchbox so it can be packed? Not to mention if, God forbid, one of the kids gets up on the wrong side of the bed.

But the kids always eat breakfast - and that’s where this review and giveaway come into play.

The good folks at BlogHer asked for a review and for me to giveaway money. How could I refuse that?!

So… Per my regular review format, here we go…

EQUATION: I received the new product from Capri-Sun in three varieties to try - well, for my kids to try. They tried the Orange Wake Up and Berry Tangerine Morning.

Capri Sun Sunrise ~ Making Every Day Better
Capri Sun Sunrise is the new, wholesome morning drink for kids chock full of Vitamin C and calcium.

• A good source of calcium
• 100% Daily Value Vitamin C
• The pouch kids love

It comes in three flavors: Orange Wake Up, Tropical Morning, Berry Tangerine Morning

PLUS: Well - aside from all the vitamins and all that good for you stuff… My kids LOVED it. I tried to get descriptions from them other than “good” but all I got out of them is, “It’s very Orangy!” They’re only 6 & 9 so I’ll give them some slack. But I suppose the biggest praise of all was, “Can we please please please have it in snack tomorrow?”

MINUS: We’ve been using the Capri-Sun products for a long time, and I really trust the brand. But, it’s still a packaged juice, as opposed to completely fresh do-it-yourself. But since I’ve never made juice in my life, that’s not a big minus for me. Although I suppose it should be? But it is 100% juice, and they have Green initiative that you can find out more about at their website.

There are actually 8 chances to win… Go see the Blogher Round-Up Page to find out how.

Good Luck!

RULES: Sorry. Have to have them to keep things fair.

To enter, leave me a comment below and share YOUR morning routine tips, as I mentioned above - or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will begin on 4/29/09 and will end 7/8/09. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct. You can find the Official BlogHer Contest Rules here.

• No duplicate comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
• This giveaway is open to US residents, over the age of 18.
• Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
• You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Haagen-Dazs Five Coffee Ice Cream

I mean, this is Haagen-Dazs. You don’t need me to tell you they’re good. They just are. It’s a known fact.

However, through a wonderful PR rep I’m connected with, I had the chance to participate in a conference call with Haagen-Dazs. They wanted to talk to bloggers, let us know about a new product line, and then get our feedback on the idea, as well as share their process and some recipes. Involved was the Haagen-Dazs brand manager, culinary consultant (she came up with the recipes), and two PR reps for the company.

The line? Haagen-Dazs Five! What happens when you mix just 5 ingredients that you know and can pronounce. Milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and then the flavor (real.) So for the Coffee (!!) flavor, all that’s in it is milk, cream, sugar, eggs, and coffee. Not coffee “flavor”… Coffee. All the ingredients are on both the front and back. That’s all there is. Oh - and the cost is the same as the rest.

Flavors:

• Coffee (!!)
• Brown Sugar
• Ginger
• Milk Chocolate
• Mint
• Passion Fruit
• Vanilla Bean

This is a wonderful idea. I mean, yeah, sure, the big thing right now is all natural, organic, healthy blah blah blah. But frankly, while I’m certainly on that bandwagon, my whole thing is I like to actually know what’s there. I’m sure that some multi-sylabic ingredients are plenty good for you. But if I don’t know what that word is, how do I - a non-scientist - know?

During the call, we bounced around ideas for flavors and such. Some were doable, and written down, others were shot down because they were already tried, and the flavors just didn’t come out enhanced like they’d hoped. It was really interesting to listen in and see the brand manager’s reactions - you could really tell she loved the product line.

Anyway - I just wanted to alert you to the fact that is plain old good ice cream is simple, easy, and in your frozen section now. And come on. It’s Haagen-Dazs.

Here are some recipes! These are what the consultant shared on the conference call.
Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Warm Apple Cinnamon Blossoms (PDF)
Ginger Ice Cream with Cardamom Honey Roasted Peaches (PDF)
Passion Fruit Ice Cream with Tropical Fruit Confetti (PDF)

Häagen-Dazs Five Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Warm Apple Cinnamon Blossoms

Häagen-Dazs Five Ginger Ice Cream with Cardamom-Honey Roasted Peaches

Häagen-Dazs Five Passion Fruit Ice Cream with Tropical Confetti

Enjoy!

I recently went to SXSW as a result of winning a contest from Wal-Mart and the Eleven Moms. My actual sponsor, however, was The Hunger Pledge. Unfortunately, before during the event, I was unable to actually connect with them to thank them.

So much happened during SXSW that I was too drained to do a rundown on each day. So instead, I thought I’d just highlight what the Hunger Pledge is.

The Pledge is a way to give to Share our Strenth. 1 in 6 children in America will wonder when their next meal will come. That’s 12 million + children. In America.

About Share Our Strength

Share Our Strength® is a national organization that works hard to make sure no kid in America grows up hungry.

We weave together a net of community groups, activists and food programs to catch children at risk of hunger and surround them with nutritious food where they live, learn and play.

We work with the culinary industry to create engaging, pioneering programs like Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation®, Share Our Strength’s Great American Bake Sale®, Share Our Strength’s A Tasteful Pursuit®, Share Our Strength’s Great American Dine Out™, and Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline®. Discover how you can get involved »
Why We Do It

We have all experienced hunger at one time or another: We’ve all craved a midnight snack, wanted something salty or needed some chocolate. But there’s a big difference between trying to satisfy a brief craving or stomach growl and wondering when or from where your next meal will come.

More than 12.4 million—one in six—children in America are at risk of hunger. These children will endure lifelong consequences as a result of having limited access to nutritious foods. In fact, they’re more likely to suffer poorer health, fatigue, hospitalizations, behavioral difficulties and impaired performance at school.

And hunger doesn’t discriminate. It can affect any child—even those you’d least expect.

Despite the good efforts of governments, private-sector institutions and everyday Americans, millions of our children still don’t have daily access to the nutritious meals they need to live active, healthy lives.

Through the strength of dedicated, committed volunteers to support our fundraising efforts and community organizations that put our resources to good use, Share Our Strength finds childhood hunger where it hides and works hard to end it.

• We raise funds through our pioneering culinary events (Share Our Strength’s Taste of the Nation, Great American Dine Out, A Tasteful Pursuit and Great American Bake Sale) and award grants to support successful organizations across the country that work to provide children and their families with the healthy food they need. Since our inception in 1984, we have raised over $245 million and provided support to more than 1,000 of the most effective hunger-relief organizations around the globe. Get involved with a Share Our Strength event.
• We partner with leading corporations through strategic marketing programs that engage their customers, employees and partners around the issue of ending childhood hunger in America. Learn more about our innovative corporate partnerships.
• We award grants to organizations throughout the country whose efforts and successes align with the 10 points of our national plan to end childhood hunger. Learn more about our Grants at Work.
• We convene partnerships with effective, influential nonprofits that develop their own plans modeled after Share Our Strength’s national plan to end childhood hunger. Learn more about our state partnerships.
• We provide education programming through Share Our Strength’s Operation Frontline, our awarding winning nutrition education program that teaches families how to prepare healthy, low-cost meals. Learn more about Operation Frontline.

All of this work supports our strategy to end childhood hunger in America.

The Pledge itself is a way to rally the nation to ending hunger. You can pledge to give money, volunteer, or share. Pledge today! Some resources for you to help:

• Hunger Pledge at Twitter
• Share our Strength Website
• Hunger Pledge Website

I have another one from the people at the One2One Network. They sent me the new Yanni Voices [CD/DVD] to review. I should add that it comes with both a CD and a DVD - I’m just reviewing the CD.

EQUATION: Yanni - a memorable name in instrumentals and composition is known for his sweeping music. This time around, he threw a curveball… He has brought vocals to the forefront. The CD takes some of his classic stuff as well as new music - but introduces four vocalists: Nathan Pacheco, Chloe, Ender Thomas, and Leslie Mills. All of them were discovered and mentored by Yanni. The album was released on March 24th. The Yanni Voices world tour kicks off in the U.S. on April 10th.

PLUS: There’s music and then there’s music. Due to my background, I’ll admit, I’m biased to this kind of orchestral music. I just am - can’t get around that. The composition is gorgeous, the instrumentals amazingly executed, and the vocalists are so talented I’m surprised we’ve not heard of them until now. There’s a little of everything tempo wise, so it’s not the same feel throughout. Each piece feels as though it’s a complete story - so when you move on to the next, it really feels like a new story. As for the individual tracks - while all of it is great: Track 1, Omaggio (Tribute), made me cry. Tracks 3 & 4, Our Days and Never Leave the Sun, both made me want to dance for my husband. Track 5, Before the Night Ends, is just plain beautiful.

MINUS: I’m not sure if it’s a plus or minus, but my husband listened to it with me, and his response was, “You can’t tell it’s Yanni.” The other minus I would say is - really - you’ve got to love it. I don’t think it’s a “so-so” kind of thing. I think you’ll either love it or hate it, it feels like that kind of extreme to me.

EQUALS: A positive review. A rave, actually. I simply love this CD.

Ballas Hough Band

The wonderful peeps at the One2One Network sent me the newly released Ballas Hough Band CD to review.

EQUATION: You all know all about Dancing with the Stars. What you may not know is that Mark Ballas and Derek Hough - two of the professional dancers paired with the stars - sing too! So - not only are they great teachers and dancers (they’ve each led their partners to victory) they’ve got this side gig going and recently released a CD, the self titled Ballas Hough Band, on March 10th. Maybe you can’t call it a side gig. They’ve been making music together for over 10 years. They wrote over half the songs themselves, and “Do it for You” was cowritten with American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi. The Ballas Hough Band will be hitting the road for a national US tour in the summer of ’09, and the One2One Network is getting them some much deserved attention. Along with those two headliners, you’ve got: Emily Grace (keyboard/vocals), Sam Marder (bass), and Harry Sullivan (drums).

The track listing for BHB is as follows:
1. Do You Love Me
2. Devastated
3. Closer
4. She Was The One
5. Longing For
6. Birthday
7. Fall
8. Do It For You
9. Breakthrough
10. Together Faraway
11. Underwater

You can follow them on facebook, MySpace, and their website.

As for the review - I should tell you where I’m coming from.  First - I have eclectic tastes.  I like a little bit of everything, and while I don’t play any more for a host of reasons, I’m trained in clarinet, flute, piano, and pit percussion.  I’ve played everything from the classics, to marches, to scores, to pop.  So - I listen to everything, but I always have a different spin on things.

PLUS: It’s catchy.  It’s really catchy.  It’s pop-y.  I found myself bouncing my head before a lot of the songs really got started.  It’s musically sound.  They can sing.  For me - this would be perfect music to clean to.  I know that doesn’t sound like a plus - but it is in my head.  It’s something that I can get things done to.  It’s a bit boy-bandish which could be a plus or a minus.  I can’t decide which category THAT little tidbit should go in, but hey - boy bands can rock it, so I’m putting it on the plus side.

MINUS: It’s a little bit formulaic.  There’s no surprises here.  I hesitate to say this - but I think that they may attract a younger demographic.  I’m not saying ‘tweens young - but say early 20’s females.  That’s not necessarily a minus, but it does limit their reach.

EQUALS: I think that this is a fine starting effort.  They’ve all been playing together forever, so I think they’re going to go through some growing pains finding their market and making their true voices shine.  But if they plow through and do the work, they can really come through to become a successful band that lasts.   So, all in all - I’m keeping the CD, and giving them a positive review!