Because I'm all about reducing physical and emotional clutter in life (I'm even speaking about this topic at BlissDom next month), I'm thrilled to join Asha Dornfest of Parent Hacks and Meagan Francis of The Happiest Mom to host a conversation on The Best Ideas For Getting Organized at The Motherhood. Join us tomorrow -- Monday the 23rd -- from 1-1:30 pm EST to chat about simplifying and streamlining your home, schedule, and life. No complicated technical know-how is required to participate in the chat -- it's basically like commenting in on status updates. You will need a logon at The Motherhood to participate, so hop on over and register now. You can also submit questions in advance if you like.
Image credit: Parent Hacks

Last year we opened a bank account for Laurel -- she's really proud of it. She saves up money to put in her account and is always game for rolling loose household change (we tell her if she's willing to roll it, she can deposit it into her account...she just deposited $21 in loose change this week, actually). And while normally I don't get excited about banking matters, I am really looking forward to ableBanking opening so we can transfer her savings. Normally I would not write about a bank opening, but stick with me -- helping out your favorite nonprofit is involved!
First, I want to disclose that ableBanking is a client of Women Online. In my advisory role on the project I am not obligated to post about ableBanking, but I love their model and want to share it. In a nutshell, as an online-only savings bank, ableBanking will save on overhead and thus be able to offer better rates and no fees for customers. But the big differentiator? They are foregoing fancy ads and redirecting their marketing budget to charity -- on behalf of their customers.

Once ableBanking is open, simply open an account ($250 minimum to open) and you then can designate $25 (a huge amount compared to other banks offering charitable percent donations) to any nonprofit you choose. Even better, ableBanking is committed to ongoing charitable giving and will donate one quarter of a percent of your balance every year to the charity of your choice.

As I said, I find this model totally awesome and it also offers a wonderful means to talk to kids about charitable giving. And most immediately, before the bank opens, ableBanking is engaging a charitable campaign. Simply nominate a beloved Massachusetts 501(c)3 non-profit by January 31, 2012 and the five most nominated nonprofits will each receive a $1,000 donation from ableBanking. This is a big sum for many struggling nonprofits and nominating takes about 5 seconds. So GO DO IT! Also, don't worry, nominating doesn't commit you to opening an account -- submitting your e-mail will add you to a distribution so they can let you know when the bank is open, but then you can choose at the time whether or not to take action.

Personally, I am rallying for Laurel's school PTO. Like many schools, they do so much and are so committed and are always in need of cash flow. I double checked with my friend Elise (who seems to know everything about anything related to the PTO!) that it is a 501(c)3 and was thrilled to receive confirmation. I'm going to try to rally all of my friends and their friends at the school to nominate.

And what about you? It takes only a few seconds to nominate your favorite nonprofit and then a few minutes more to rally friends and family via e-mail. While yes, of course I want to win $1,000 for our school PTO, I'm rooting for all of the nonprofits you all care about.

One technical note: For kids under 16 years of age, ableBanking accounts will need to be opened in an adult's name with the child listed as a beneficiary. Those 16 years and up can open a joint account where the teenager is the primary account holder. Either way offers excellent fodder to involve kids in charitable giving discussions!

Image credit: vintage Mexican piggy bank via Etsy

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you're gearing up for a wonderful weekend. Here are 12 picks that caught my eye:

1. Hail to The Monkey King! (Cambridge)

2. Hooray -- there's actually snow on the ground for this family snowshoe walk. (Mattapan)
3. I'm admittedly curious about how big the big red dog will be. (Boston)

4. A perfect pick for Elmo fans. (Worcester)

5. For those who are curious about creatures. (Arlington)

6. Magic! (Arlington)

7. Classic children's stories, puppet style. (Brookline)

8. Cinderella, apparently with a twist. (Brookline)

9. Geckos! (Boston)

10. A family friendly musical jamboree. (Cambridge)

11. A healthy family expo where you can jump to your heart's content. (Everett)

12. I am admittedly a little obsessed with penguins right now. This would be perfect. (Boston)

Image credit: Peabody Museum

Hi y'all -- I know, three posts in one day! But I want to send out this poll and it has to live somewhere, so here it is! I'm working on a post about electronics depreciation and would love to know how you think about gadgets and money. I myself am a wait-until-it-has-dropped-at-least-$100-and-then-try-to-buy-it-with-gift-cards stingy-ass person. How about you?

http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/Poll/Embed/WEB22EGZ87C38S?e=tOnline Surveys - Zoomerang.com

Are you the type of person who has trouble clearing your mind or meditating? Stare at this video until it's done and don't let yourself think about anything but what's on the screen. It's from the Icelandic Volcano stop-action video guy.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/10655199 w=400&h=225]

Stomacher - Untitled/Dark Divider from Sean Stiegemeier on Vimeo.

Guess what? One of my New Year's resolutions is to make side money. Please to enjoy this sponsored post! I'll put up another one, too, don't worry. 

http://oascentral.blogher.org/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/blogher.org/LWL_Aug11_Review_001/@x13

The question I'm supposed to answer is: How do you keep/maintain your New Year’s Resolutions?

I don't actually make New Year's Resolutions anymore because I feel too guilty when I break them. I can be a little OCD about goals, *cough*. However, I do find that I get crazymaking about organizing and fixing up my house in winter because I stare at the inside of it so much during the cold months. It gets dark early, and I don't want to go outside and do anything and the lawn is dead. Also, the little angel tends to trash the house more in the winter because I lock the door and won't let her in except to pee during summer weekends. (I'm only sort of kidding.)

I hate trashed rooms. I hate piles of itsy bitsy pieces. And worst of all? I hate it when my crying girl realizes she's lost an important part of her favorite toys, which are ALL OF THEM.

When my daughter and her friends spend a lot of time playing indoors, things get lost. My girl is pretty good at organizing things, but she has to be in the right frame of mind to do it. It's far easier to keep her on track if she has completely separate containers for things. In the past year, I've reorganized the clothes in her drawers twice, her bookshelves three times and her playroom twice. I've learned to only put one type of toy in the toybox, because as much as I love that toybox, it is like the bottom of a too-large purse -- it collects broken pieces of stuff we sold in a garage sale three years ago and everything gets coated in that grunge of broken pieces. So now I only put hard plastic toys in there. At least you can wipe them off.

We got separate clear plastic containers for like things:

• Matchbox cars and the little airplanes I always buy in airports
• Any small doll that remotely resembles a Polly Pocket
• Fake food/tea sets, etc.
• One with three drawers holds her American Girl shoes

I repurpose swag from blogging conferences or work events in any way possible.

• Sewing supplies in a swag tote
• Zhu Zhu pets in some little pop-up containers I got last year 
• Hexbugs in a little container that used to hold fancy chocolates
• Finger puppets in a box that contained a sinus cleaning tool
• A bag made out of a Hanes t-shirt holds Cabbage Patch clothes (it expands!)

Any time I get a cool container for any reason, I keep it and use it for little stuff:

• Harry and David boxes I got from a co-worker for her hair ties and jewelry
• Cute, sturdy shoebox I got containing a gift now holds Barbie clothes
• A white wicker basket I got with diapers in it at my baby shower now holds dry erase markers for her whiteboard
• A hamper that was too small for her jeggings now holds Barbie furniture
• A hatbox holds American Girl clothes in her closet
• An extra-large clear plastic wine bucket (the kind you'd use outside for a BBQ) holds her bath toys
• Her diaper basket holds magazines in the bathroom
• Glass jars from pasta hold art supplies downstairs, which are also contained in another unused dresser

Furniture can be used for other stuff:

• My daughter's changing table now functions as an additional toybox and holds up the hermit crab twins' aquarium.
• A dresser in the closet keeps Barbies, paper dolls and her collection of Animal Planet safari animals and their rescue center separate.
• An old bookcase holds office supplies in the basement.
• Another old bookcase holds laundry supplies in the laundry room.
• Our former microwave stand is now a table saw holder in the garage.

Sometimes I think I've become too obsessed. Then I look around at everything in its place and realize I know exactly where to find the XYZ when my girl tells me she needs it the next day at school. (Today is Hawaiian Day, I found out last night at dinner -- and Mommy, do I have a lei? She does, and I knew exactly where it was.)

Now, if only I could get that sort of handle on my laptop. I can't find ANYTHING in there.

---

My tips have focused on getting organized, but here's a list of tips for keeping pretty much any resolution on BlogHer -- check it out and comment if you want to share your own tips.

I love any contest involving giving away a Kindle Fire -- comment on this post about what you want to accomplish in 2012 and you'll be registered to win one!

http://oascentral.blogher.org/RealMedia/ads/adstream_jx.ads/blogher.org/LWL_Aug11_Review_001/@x13

As a writer and blogger, I should be against piracy and copyright violation, right? One would think ... but there's a lot more going on with SOPA than appears on the surface. 

And if you think it's no big deal because you didn't see it on TV this morning, think again: 

SOPA would give both the government and major corporations the power to shut down entire websites accused of copyright infringement with neither a trial nor a traditional court hearing. The legislation is aggressively backed by Hollywood movie studios and major record labels, along with several major news providers, including Fox News and NBC-Universal, which have largely shied away from coverage of the bill.

Wonder why big media (record companies, movie companies) is for SOPA while search engines, Twitter and YouTube are against it? The Stop Online Piracy Act sounds really good, right? Who doesn't want to squelch piracy? And I don't disagree that we should squelch it -- but this is so not the way to go about it. The U.S. government is talking about mucking around with the way the entire Internet works and holding social media sites such as YouTube personally responsible for any bit of perceived copyright violation anywhere on its site, meaning it can be blocked from you if some kid in Sri Lanka uploads a dance video with copyrighted music playing in the background. If any editor on Wikipedia mucks up and doesn't make a correct citation. Bye bye, Wikipedia.

If there's piracy or copyright violation, fine them. Don't censor them. Don't shut down the entire site over what could be an accidental oversight. Who do we think we are, China? I'm looking at you, Blunt and McCaskill. (Currently both senators are for PIPA, the Senate equivalent.) 

Guess who might like that to happen? Maybe companies that don't want the competition?

As a writer, I value building on others' work. Often I'm inspired by someone else's post, and quote a bit of it to riff on it. A fair use bit, as defined by the law. How do you riff a little on a video or song? How do you participate in culture when that participation could be deemed harmful enough to block a website for everyone before a trial even happens? Have we all gone insane? There is true piracy and there is misunderstanding the law, and this legislation doesn't give a shit which one you do -- you can have your DNS address delisted without a trial for suspicion of wrongdoing. 

And OH MY GOD HOW MANY TRIALS WILL THIS ADD? What about the people who can't afford to lawyer up? Bye bye, website.

And the scariest part is that the lawmakers voting on it don't even understand how the Internet works. 

If this freaks you the hell out, there's a list of things you can do and even more background up on BlogHer today, which is not blacked out because this legislation is so important to the community's livelihoods and more. Knowledge is power -- please speak your mind today.

Today, Paige (also of Mudroom Boston) shares a beloved book:

During a recent playground conversation with a fellow mom, we were recounting our childhoods. Although we grew up in different areas, our memories were the same -- hours and hours of unsupervised outside playtime with neighborhood friends, solo bike rides into town to buy candy, and walking to school by ourselves by the time we were in second grade. As we hovered over our four collective children, occasionally interrupting our own chatting with a "Don't run so fast!" or "Watch your head!", I reflected on how much life and "playtime" had changed for my own kids in just one generation.

A few days after this conversation, a Boston Magazine article by Katherine Ozment began circling around my Facebook world. Called Welcome to the Age of Overparenting, Ozment wrote about whether her style of parenting -- what has come to be the style for many of us these days -- was contributing to the demise of her own children's freedom and imagination. She wrote:

"I still remember the time my two older brothers built an igloo in our front yard. It had a domed roof and arched entrance, and they strung an overhead work lamp from the ceiling and laid out a small rug so we could all sit in it for hours. Witnessing my children's paltry fort-making skills, I thought, Is this what our kids will remember of winter -- digging little holes in the snow as their mother hovered nearby? Where has the childhood I once knew gone?"

Both the conversation and Ozment's article reminded me of one of our very favorite bedtime books -- maybe a favorite for me because it so beautifully captures what I feel my kids are in danger of losing if I don't ease up a bit -- the freedom and imagination to create worlds of their own, worlds that don't include parents.

Roxaboxen, written by Alice McLerran and illustrated by Caldecott Medal winner Barbara Cooney, tells the story of a very real town in Arizona created out of the fantasy of children. Like any town, Roxaboxen has houses filled with tables and dishes, shops, a town hall and mayor, and even a jail. Roxaboxen is the first place that the neighborhood children run to after school, and is where they spend their summers, building new homes and shops. And even though the town is run by children, they still have rules -- eat as much ice cream as you want, but don't break the speed limit or Policeman Jamie may take you to the cactus-lined jail. Swords made of ocotillo plants serve as weapons in war, sticks stand in for horses, broken glass creates jeweled windows, and small black pebbles buy you anything you want in Roxaboxen.

I love reading Roxaboxen with my sons not only because it reminds me of the freedom of my own childhood, but also reminds me what I want for them and my need to step back a bit and let it happen. I recently asked my older son if he thought it was strange that there were no parents in Roxaboxen. "Oh, Mom, there are parents," he said, "you just don't see them."

Exactly.

*Editor's Note: This editor has been too lazy to take photos, so that'll be a different post.*

Our continued efforts in the Transformation of Chateau Travolta rise and fall seasonally. In the summer, we become obsessed with the yard and flowers and the roof and the paint and the blah blah blah. In the chill of winter, when we're stuck inside all weekend long? OMG, the ceiling in the living room is so depressing. It's like hobbits live here or something.

(The ceiling has rough-hewn beams every six feet or so. They are were a chocolate color. Which is totally cool if you are a hobbit or live in a Tudor. Neither of those are we.)

Beloved installed the arch in the door between the kitchen and the living room a few months ago after my nagging incessantly about the unfinished doorframe for just a week or two, seriously. The arch is beautiful. And white. Which made those hobbit beams look even darker and goth-like in contrast. Also, the trim around the living room ceiling, which somehow in a paint-matching miscalculation is even darker brown than the beams, reminds me of wearing courdoroy with silk.

We've talked about painting those beams white or boxing them in since we moved in. But of course, every other project got in the way. It was finally the beautiousness of the arch that pushed Beloved over the edge. He really wanted to paint the ceiling. Ever since I painted the kitchen ceiling and dripped all over the lineoleum (thank goodness that's not staying, because people, I am telling you -- you do NOT want me to paint your ceiling), I swore never again. Not me. I'm not allowed to paint ceilings. Or remove tile. Not that I've ever accidentally punched a hole in a wall doing that. Um. 

So Beloved said if I left the house with the little angel, he would paint the ceiling and the beams. And this weekend, he did. It only took twelve hours.

The effect is pretty amazing. The trim still needs to be replaced, so it's not complete yet, but it's like the ceiling just rose by six inches. I no longer feel quite so hobbit-like.

We just keep hacking at this house, and with each measure, it feels more like ours.