She tells me most things while she's in the bathtub, the warm water up around her ears, bubbles surrounding her fingers. And she asks me things, too.

"Mommy, what was your favorite day?"

I smiled but paused. She looked worried, reconsidered.

"I mean, what were your TWO favorite days?"

"When I married Daddy and when you were born, of course."

"Were you so happy when I was born?"

"Yes. I'd been waiting a long time to meet you."

She curled her little toes against the rubber duck floating by the faucet and smiled. And I smiled, surprised by the lump suddenly in my throat.

*    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    

I'm glad she asks, because even though I tell her every day I love her, I forget to tell her that she is more important to me than any book, any accomplishment, any present. I very much need the chance to look her in the eye and tell her the day she was born was one of the two days in my entire life that will always float to the top of best moments, that she need never worry about the security of my love.

I hope you all enjoyed this lovely weekend! In my opinion it was the perfect amount of snow -- plenty to be pretty and fun to play in (Laurel frolicked outside for two hours with her cousins yesterday!) but not too arduous to shovel. Oh, and also, congrats to the Patriots! Now, here are some handy/fun ideas to consider in this week's Weekly Blueprint:

January 23: Come glean the best ideas for getting organized.

January 23-29: Bread and Puppet Theater brings a carrot circus to Boston.
January 24: An event for women looking to get back on the career track.

January 25: Pretty, pretty. An exploration of color.

January 27: A Chinese New Year celebration in Acton.

January 27: A different kind of Green Eggs & Ham.

January 27: The Wizard of Oz kicks off its run at Wheelock Family Theatre.

January 27-29: Enjoy Lincoln's winter carnival.

At your leisure: Nominate your favorite nonprofit to win a $1,000 charitable donation. So easy, so awesome.

At your leisure: Pick up some hand relief (Hydrolatum is totally working for us!).

At your leisure: Make something yummy. I just made a pan of magic spinach pie yesterday (see my recipe revision in the comments) and it was fantastic, as always. And so gratifying to watch the kids gobbling it too.

At your leisure: Chip away at organization. I love these ideas for using pocket organizers all over the house.

Image credit: Wheelock Family Theater

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.