I just read this great article over at HybridMom.com on 21 Habits of Happy Moms. We all want more happiness in our life, right? Well, check out this list of 21 things we should be doing to be happier. While I have to say that I don’t do all of them, I was surprised to see that I do quite a few on the list.

My number one tip for Moms out there is to plan your “Mom Moments.” I sound anal when I say this (and trust me, I am not the poster child for the organized Mom) but I write my Mom time activities down in my daily planner so that I don’t schedule anything over them and they’re treated as an important engagement. I write down when I am going to work out and I even write in my lunch time where I get to read a juicy novel while eating. That way I have no excuses for why I didn’t take some time for myself to create happy moments.

To me, happiness comes in moments, which is why I called this site Chocolate Cake Moments. Happiness just can’t be a permanent state. Life throws us too many curve balls. So planning these Mom time activities and even your family fun activities will help to create more happy Chocolate Cake Moments – where we are smiling, relaxed, and enjoying life – giving us an overall sense of happiness.

What do you think? Does happiness come in moments or can you be happy all of the time? What do you do to feel happy?

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Tags: Cool Finds · Help Mom Stay Organized · Parenting Tips

It happens. We love our husbands and Dads to death and want to show them appreciation and give them a fun day to remember on Father’s Day. But some years you wake up on a Saturday morning in a cold sweat and say, “What? It’s tomorrow!?! How did that happen?”

It’s not that we don’t love you, sweeties. We want only the best for these men of ours. But life interferes. Kids need attention. (Yes, I am going to cop out and blame it on the kids.)

So, ladies, here are some last minute Father’s Day ideas that will make it look like you have been planning a special day for months.

1. Breakfast in Bed. The classic. Why not make his favorite dish and have the kids help you present it to him in bed? Or relaxing out on the patio? Breakfast Burritos are a huge hit in our house and easy to make. Scramble eggs, saute some onions and red peppers. Warm some tortillas and your favorite salsa. Add a side of grated cheddar and sour cream. Viola!

2. Bake his favorite cookies. My hubby loves Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies so the kids and I make them for him on special occasions – his birthday, Christmas, and now Father’s Day. (Make sure the kids don’t eat too many kisses so you run out of them by the time the last batch is ready.)

3. An afternoon of golf. If your whole family plays golf, set up a tee time and spend the day outside. If not, call one of his best buddies and set up a play date for Dad.

4. Act like a tourist. Some of our best Father’s Days have been where we just headed into downtown Chicago and hit some of the big tourist attractions. It’s something we rarely do as a family and it makes us feel like we “traveled” somewhere for the day.

5. Pampering. Every Dad likes quiet and relaxation, right? Well, why not give him a massage. He’ll get an hour of peace and quiet and come home relaxed and jelly like. (Ready to start work again on Monday. Right!)

6. Cook together. Do you both like to cook? Why not take the day to make one of those all day recipes that you have been dying to try. Make homemade pasta. Make paella. Slow cook ribs or a BBQ brisket. You’ll have a relaxing day spending time together in the kitchen and then eating a fabulous, rarely cooked meal.

Read our post on Father’s Day Activities from last year.

Give that important man in your life some Chocolate Cake Moments. He deserves them. Happy Fathers Day, everyone!

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Tags: Family Celebrations · Help Mom Stay Organized · Holiday Fun

Chocolate Cake Club Family Fun Calendar

Welcome to Day #2 of our 30 Day Summer Fun Challenge, where we’re giving you 30 days of simple, creative & most importantly memorable ideas to make this the most fun summer ever for your family.

Have you ever wondered where the summer has gone? Been disappointed that you didn’t get to the Zoo, or get tickets to a popular kids concert, or get the bikes out enough to justify the space they take up in the garage? Well, last summer we started a Family Summer Hit List and it made planning and scheduling our family fun a whole lot easier. We were tired of “missing” some of the fun things we wanted to do every summer because we didn’t act fast enough, so we decided to take charge and make it a family project.

Pick a night and when you sit down for dinner, go around the table and ask everyone in the family what they would like to do for fun that summer. Have someone write down all of the ideas. Then vote on the Top 10 ideas that your family is going to do together. (If this gets too heated or causes hurt feelings amongst younger siblings, put all of the ideas into a hat and pull the first 10. While someone might still be miffed that their idea didn’t make it, at least it’s fair!)

Now, grab the family calendar and plan which days you’ll schedule each activity. If any work needs to be done ahead of time like buying tickets, making reservations, or inviting friends over, assign the responsibilities to family members so everyone is working together to have fun. You’ll get more buy-in from the kids, Mom won’t be the only one planning everything, and you won’t miss any important activities.

Your kids and grandkids grow up so fast. Don’t miss these precious summer days and nights to have fun together. (That was my mushy Moment.)

Here’s our family’s Summer Hit List around the Chicagoland area:

• Train ride downtown, eat at French Market
• Six Flags Day with fellow Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Families
• Concert at Ravinia, our outdoor concert venue
• Long bike ride along Lake Michigan – RJ Grunts for dinner
• Cubs Game
• Splash time at North Ave. Beach
• BBQ party with friends
• Hang out with neighbors at local pool
• Backyard camp-out
• Drive-in tailgate party with friends
• Trips to Austin, TX and Iowa to visit the Grandparents and cousins

TREAT: To make your planning a little easier, for every order placed today at the Chocolate Cake Club between 8 a.m. CST and midnight, we’ll throw in a FREE Mom’s Plan-it or momAgenda Family Planning Calendar. While supplies last, so get your order in now!

What’s on your Hit List for the Summer?

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Tags: Family Dinner Time Fun · Family Fun Ideas · Help Mom Stay Organized · Ideas for family projects · Summer Family Activities

Well, the kids are out of school for one full day and they are already bored. It’s hard to get work done during the summer when the kids feel the need to be entertained. However, it is possible with some scheduling and communication. I wrote a post last year on How to Keep Your Kids Active During the Summer While You Work from Home and since I just pulled it out and brushed it off as a reference for myself, I thought I would share with you as well.

In addition, I was a guest on Mom Talk Radio today with Maria Bailey talking about how to keep your kids occupied while you work from home this summer. The program will air live on Sunday at 8 p.m. EST. Click here to listen in. I’ll set up a link to the recording next week once it is posted.

I hope these ideas help you keep your projects moving forward, your sanity in check, and the kids happily entertained. Good Luck!

Have any other tips on how to manage work and kids during the summer? Please share and win a momAgenda All-in-One Organizer!

The best comment (voted by little old me) will win an All-in-One Folio from momAgenda to make your life a little easier this summer. I have some extras and I would rather you have them than me. I’ll pick a winner on Monday, June 14th. Sorry, US Residents only.

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Tags: Help Mom Stay Organized

For most families we know, school ends either this week or next so the question on every Mom’s mind is “What do we get for the kids’ teachers?” Every year I try to be creative and come up with something unique but most years I end up giving them what they say they really need. I am fortunate enough to have 6 teachers living in my neighborhood so I asked them what they like to get at the end of the year from their students. Here were the top answers, hands down.

1. Book Gift Cards – many teachers have to buy their own books for the classroom so gift cards help to cover that expense for them.

2. Coffee Gift Cards – We’re in a room with 28 loud children every day, need we say more?

3. Target Gift Cards – Hey, many teachers are Moms, too. (This applies for movie ticket certificates, restaurant certificates, and anything that you would appreciate as a gift.)

4. Anything Homemade by the student, especially if they had a nice bond throughout the school year. Notes, photos collages, or a written story were appreciated.

Want some more ideas? Here are some additional gift ideas I’ve come up with and found on various Mom sites.

5. The Mother Huddle blog had some ideas that were nice and most importantly easy to do. I really liked the Joyful Hands soap idea.

6. The Skip to My Lou blog had some great simple ideas for Teacher Appreciation Week that would also work as nice year end gifts. I like the Gift Certificate for a Massage idea.

7. If you have an artist at home, frame one of their masterpieces. My daughter’s teacher is retiring at the end of year so she is going to draw a picture of the teacher’s classroom so she’ll remember it.

8. How about a plant? They last longer than flowers and can be used to lighten up the classroom next year.

9. A box of pretty Thank You Notes. The teachers may want to send a thank you to all of the students for their year end gifts so why not make it easier for them to do so.

10. A movie night package. Grab a recently released DVD, popcorn and some candy so your teacher can have a fun night at home with their family.

Care to add to the list? We’d love to hear more ideas.

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Tags: Back to School Tips · Help Mom Stay Organized · Parenting Tips

The Family Gallery: Viewing by Invitation Only

As we explained in our last post on Organizing Your Kids Artwork, there are a few things you can do to get the artwork off of the kitchen counter and out of the closet. Here’s an idea. Why not put it up on the wall instead? Get some sticky tape and display your little masterpieces on the walls. (I would have said stick them up on the fridge but as I learned when we bought our sleek, cool new stainless steel refrigerator – MAGNETS DON”T WORK ON STAINLESS STEEL.)

To get the art off of the counter, we have designated two walls in our house for artwork. My daughter who is the prolific one even created her own sign saying “Christy’s Gallery.”

Tip:You may need to set some rules on which walls can be used to display art. My daughter discovered the magic of tape at an early age and every time I turned around there seemed to be a new picture hanging somewhere in the house. We had to draw the line when she started to hang her art on top of our nicely framed travel photos.

You can even buy frames that allow you to change out the artwork if you want to make it look more “professional”. However, our artwork seems to come home in various shapes, sizes and dimensions to sticking with tape works best for us.

I read a good article in Cookie Magazine where some readers had sent in ideas on how they display their kids’ artwork. Some have hung wire or clothes lines on the wall or along the staircase and they use clothespins to creatively hang the artwork. This makes it easy for your kids to hang it themselves. They just clip and go. It’s a great way to decorate and add color to the basement playroom or above your child’s bed. Some other ideas included putting the art in a shadow box.

I’ve bought some colored mats at Michaels to use as a frame or border behind the artwork to make the kids’ artwork look a little more special.

Don’t want to hang a frame, use a sticker instead. Try these Gilt Wall Sticker Frames around your kids artwork. Or, use colored masking tape to create a frame around the artwork on all sides.

Finally, take pictures of your favorite kids artwork and load the pics into a digital frame so you can easily “display” a year’s worth of photos in one small frame.

We’ll have some other unique ideas in our next post. How do you display your kids artwork?

Note: We don’t receive any commission from mentioning products other than the ones we sell at ChocolateCakeClub.com. We just pass the ideas along to you.

You May Also Like:
Organizing Your Kids Artwork
How to Organize the Paperwork Chaos

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Tags: Cool Finds · Help Mom Stay Organized

The Leaning Tower of Kids Artwork

Oh no! It’s almost the last day of school and the artwork is starting to come home as kids clean out their desks and teachers sanitize their room of all signs of life. Seriously, it is amazing how fast the artwork piles up. The artwork usually sits on the kitchen counter for awhile then goes over the stairs to be taken up and then finally a few weeks later, it might make it into the kids’ rooms. We found that we had a Leaning Tower of Artwork in each of our kids’ closets just waiting to fall on some unsuspecting viewer. Afraid that I might get buried and never heard from again, I looked around for ways to control the artwork piles.

Some of the artwork that your kids produce either at daycare, pre-school, school or sitting at the kitchen table isn’t that appealing and can be easily thrown in the recycle bin when the kids go to bed. However, a lot of it is just too cute and you want to either show it off or save it. We have some ideas for both showing it off and saving it for posterity or at least until your kids get their own house and you can dump the boxes on their doorstep.

Before we tell you how to store or show it off, how do you decide what stays and what goes?

How do you choose what is Gallery Worthy?

We look at the artwork that comes in daily and first I make an executive decision on whether it’s worth displaying. Do I want to look at this more than once? Do I want others to see it? Do these colors hurt my eyes? Is it too heavy or gooey to display at home?

If it is worthy of displaying for all to see, I put it into a temporary Kids Artwork folder. Just a plain manilla folder that I leave in the laundry room by the mail sorting pile. At the end of the week I then ask my kids which artwork should be saved or displayed. This way they get involved and can tell me which of their pictures they like best and why. We then hang up these new pictures for the week. (Some artwork I just love and it gets to stay up for more than a week but hey, that’s my prerogative.) We take down the previous week’s artwork and I either toss it or if I absolutely love it, I save it in our Kids Artwork Storage Folders. Each kid has one of their own that they keep in their closet. We purge them again at the end of the year but that’s another post.

Tip: Make sure you write your child’s name and the date on the back of the pieces you are storing. When we first started to organize our Leaning Tower of Artwork we did have some problems trying to remember who created what and how old were they when they made it. This may be important to us later when my daughter becomes famous and we can sell her sketches at Sothebys.

Tomorrow, we’ll give you some creative ideas on how to display your kids artwork.

You May Also Like:
Creative Ways to Display Your Kids Artwork
How to Organize the Paperwork Chaos

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Tags: Help Mom Stay Organized · Parenting Tips

I can’t believe school is over for us in 2 weeks and 1 1/2 days. (Yes, they have to go to school for 1 and a half days the week of June 7th. They are going to get all of the buses out, make the teachers come in, turn on the electricity all so the kids can sit there for 2.5 hours. What a colosal waste of energy and resources. But that’s a rant for another post.)

With school almost out, we are in full Summer Camp preparation mode. We’re signing up for day camps, checking to see what our neighborhood friends are doing during summer vacation, and lining up babysitters to cover for when I need to go to work meetings.

We’re also evaluating our Summer Camp Gear from last year to make sure we have everything ready to go on Day 1 of Summer Camp. Here’s the checklist I created for myself. I hope it helps you get organized as well.

- Send in all medical forms for camp
- Check to see if bathing suit still fits
- Check to see if pool towel has holes in it, if yes, get a new one
- Purchase sun screen and bug spray (don’t use old one under the sink – it’s probably not effective anymore)
- Make sure school backpack is holding up and can carry camp gear easily. If too small, buy a duffle bag.
- Get new lunch box if old one is looking a little shabby or you want to upgrade to a new waste free lunch box system
- Definitely get 2 stainless water bottles ready and waiting (2 because you are going to lose 1 within the first week or two of camp or you won’t get around to washing it one night)
- Write your child’s name on everything!
- Stock up on trading cards or little games that the kids can take to camp to play with their new friends (My kids loved trading Pokemon cards at camp. We’ll see what’s hot this year.)

What does your child need for Summer Camp? To quote the Boy Scouts, “Are you prepared?”

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Tags: Help Mom Stay Organized · Parenting Tips

The ladies over at Cool Mom Picks have put together some great information on how we can donate money to the Haitian relief effort. But, here’s another way to help, and best yet, you can involve your children. Have them go around the house and gather up all of their shoes that no longer fit and send them to Soles4Souls. They are trying to get as many gently-worn shoes to the people of Haiti, as possible. You can enter your zip code at the Soles4Souls website to find the nearest drop-off location or find other ways to get your gently used shoes in their hands and then onto a Haitian child’s feet.

It’s a great opportunity to help those in need, talk to your kids about helping others, and clean out the closet. It’s a Win/Win/Win in my book!

For info on worthy charity sites to make donations or get more info on the shoe collection program, check out the post at Cool Mom Picks.

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Tags: Cool Finds · Help Mom Stay Organized · Ideas for family projects

Moms, need a little help getting the paperwork chaos monster under control this year? Have a New Years resolution to actually see your kitchen counters? Are the schools sending home more and more papers just to freak yo out? (Maybe that’s just me.) Regardless, we can help.

Download our FREE Guide to Organizing the Paperwork Chaos. It’s another Chocolate Cake Moments guide I’ve written with tips and ideas on how to get control of the mail that multiplies, not let the school paperwork bully you into submission, and keep your counters paperwork free. (So that you can pile other stuff on them, but that’s a different story.) My husband and I would play this game to see how long it takes before an empty chair or clear counter top gets used as a storage surface. It was sad how quickly we lost the game. So, I wrote this guide to help us get a process or system in place to get some control back. We may not be winning every time, but we keep trying and it helps. We strongly feel that getting organized and not feeling stressed about the clutter in your house will free you up for more Chocolate Cake Moments and fun with your family.

Download the guide here – Organize the Paperwork Chaos

If you like our guide, feel free to share it with anyone. Good luck. What are some of your tips for keeping household paperwork at bay?

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Tags: Back to School Tips · Help Mom Stay Organized

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and you know what that means … ROADTRIP! Yes, it is that time of year when we all pile in the car with our duffle bags, non-perishable Thanksgiving dinner contributions, and the dog and head out to Grandma’s House for Thanksgiving dinner. We’re getting ready for our Roadtrip to Iowa so I thought I would pass along a few tips that we rely on to make the trip go a little easier.

Car essentials:

Snacks - Make sure they’re not too messy or crumbly. Little, individual size snack bags work perfect. Grapes are good, easy to eat and no peel to worry about. Put drinks in drip-proof sippy cups or sports bottles. Juice boxes are great but no matter how neat your kids are, the juice squirts everywhere. Tip: If you end up eating breakfast in the car as you head out, make sure you don’t order anything with biscuits. They crumble everywhere!

Garbage Bag – Always have a bag in the car to throw out trash. Trust us, you don’t want to hold a snotty Kleenex or ketchup covered wrapper or banana peel for 4 hours. (Trust me on this. I’m speaking from experience.)

Pillows, Snuggle Buddies, or Neck Wraps – If the stars are aligned and Holiday fortune is smiling on you, the kids will fall asleep for awhile. While most kids are resilient and flexible, they shouldn’t have to kiss their navel while they are napping. Give them some support.

Antibacterial Wipes/Hand Sanitizer – You have kids. Need I say more?

Boredom Bag – You’ll need plenty of entertainment to keep the kids (and adults) amused during the long car trip. In my next post, I’ll give you some ideas on how to fill that Boredom Bag for younger and older kids.

What items do you take on your Holiday Road Trips?

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Tags: Help Mom Stay Organized · Holiday Fun · Parenting Tips · Traveling with the Family

Looking for some great ideas for Holiday gifts, activities, ways to stay fit, and even ways to make money during the Holiday Season? Check out the Work at Home Woman’s 2009 Holiday Gift Guide. Holly, the editor of www.workathomewoman.com calls it a Holiday Gift Guide but after reading through it, I call it a Holiday Survival Guide.

There are some great tips and articles in the guide that will help you work at home Moms keep working, stay sane and have fun during the Holidays. Holly was kind enough to let me contribute an article on a Stimulus Package for Family Fun this Holiday Season. You’ll find it on page 11 of the guide. There is also a 15% off coupon code for our www.chocolatecakeclub.com site on page 6. I’m drooling over the Pumpkin Spice Magic Bar recipe in the guide. Please share the article, coupon and guide with your friends and family so there will be a lot more smiles this Holiday Season.

Happy Reading!

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Tags: Cool Finds · Help Mom Stay Organized · Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions · Moms Living Out Loud

School has started for a lot of us, so let the volunteering begin! If you are a classroom leader or chair for a school activity or even a Boy or Girls Scouts leader, you may want a little help organizing and leading your fellow volunteers. We just learned about a free, easy-to-use online tool that takes the hassle out of coordinating volunteers. Better yet, it encourages volunteers to interact with each other. As the leader, you don’t need to do everything.

What’s the secret? Check out free ebooks on Fun School Carnival Ideas, Bake Sale Tips, Kid-Friendly Fundraising and Gift Ideas for Teachers.

Good luck!

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Tags: Back to School Tips · Help Mom Stay Organized

Once school starts, you’ll be amazed at the amount of paperwork that they bring home. While some schools are doing a good job of sending newsletters and information home electronically, there is still a mountain of papers on the counter after just one or two days of school. Here are some tips to keep on top of it and not let it overwhelm your house.

1. Designate a place to put your school papers. Do you have a desk or place to set up a few files?

2. Create a folder filing system. You’ll need folders for temporary papers, permanent information, and kids artwork. In the temporary folders, put the paperwork that you need to hang onto for a few days and then throw it all in the recycle bin at the end of the week. This can be field trip forms, notices for school parties, Star of the Week paperwork, birthday party invitations, or weekly homework packets. In the permanent folder, include school phone numbers, schedules, contact numbers for afterschool activities, etc. Anything you might need to refer to during the whole year. Finally, throw your kids artwork in a folder. At the end of the month, go through it and keep the ones you want and move them to a larger, more permanent space. Don’t forget to date them first! The Chocolate Cake Club has some School Paper and Kids Artwork Organizers, if you need help creating your filing system.

3. Create folders or a holding area for your kids other educational activities like Religious Education Classes, Tutor schedules, Spanish class, piano, etc. We have magazine racks sitting on the counter because they can hold information papers and any text books the kids need to grab for their weekly class.

4. Box tops. Have an envelope or small box designated to hold the box tops you collect to send in for school fundraising. Throw the box tops in as you go. Then, divide them up equally between the kids when the school collects them.

5. Family Schedules at a Glance. Have a Family Wall Calendar in the kitchen. It is essential for Moms and the rest of the family to have a place to refer to for activities, appointments, and social fun dates. If someone asks your daughter to babysit, she can easily check and see if she is available. If Dad comes home from work and no one is home, he can check the calendar and see that everyone is at soccer practice.

Check out more family planners at Chocolatecakeclub.com!

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Tags: Back to School Tips · Help Mom Stay Organized

Every summer I find myself facing the same predicament: how can I keep the kids busy so I can get work done? I work from home full-time and while my job is very flexible, I do need to get stuff done. We rely on the local YMCA Day Camps to keep the kids busy most of the summer but this year the kids wanted to spend more time at home. So, we scheduled a few weeks during the summer where they get to run free (right!). I know I’m not alone with this predicament. With the economy this summer, many families are opting to keep their kids home from camp to avoid the extra expense. Since summer is halfway over, I’ve learned a few tips on how to get work done. Here are some ideas that may work for you.

1. Plan for the unexpected. One of the perks of working from home is the ability to set your own schedule. This comes in handy when one of the Moms in your car pool has to cancel last minute, or when you have to pick up your sick child from camp. So, to plan for the inevitable loss of work time, try to schedule less meetings during the summer. Use the phone more so you can stay close to home. Embrace your phone’s mute button so if the kids get a little rowdy, no one on the phone will know. Plus, it allows you to indulge in some of those spur of the moment whims to, say, spend the day at the beach with your kids. Focus on projects that you can work on yourself so it doesn’t require a lot of meetings and that can be done late at night when the kids are in bed.

2. Set a Summer Schedule for the Day. It’s hard to get much work done when the kids are running in and out of rooms and getting into little tiffs that require Mom Mediation. So, rather than yelling at them to keep it down or pleading with them to let you work for just 10 more minutes, set up a daily summer work schedule that includes fun time for the kids. In the morning, tell the kids that here is what we are going to do today so they know when you are working and when it’s playtime. Go to the pool from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. every day. If you schedule their fun time in and they know it’s coming up, they will respect your work time more. Also, for your sanity, keep the schedule the same every day. Consistency will help you focus on work and help the kids focus on how to respect your time. While I don’t like using TV as a bribe or babysitter, sometimes you need the quiet inducing time TV brings. Plan to do your serious work when the shows are on that you know captivate your children. If that is the only time of day that they get to watch TV, they’ll be even more quiet and engrossed during that time period.

3. Enlist Help! Ask your neighbors, friends, or family if you can set up a swap or just plain ask if they can watch your kids while you run to a meeting or write that article. Some of my neighbors have said they don’t mind watching my kids at all (even if I’m not able to reciprocate the same amount) because it helps entertain their kids who are bored with summer break already. “If it keeps the kids from whining, I’m all for it.” I have a few Mom friends who work full or part time from home and it has been nice to offer to swap shifts. I will take all the kids for a few hours and then we’ll switch houses. It allows us Moms to get some work done during those hours.

4. Time Consuming Activities – Some days you just can’t get the back-up you need and the deadline is looming. Try getting your kids to start an activity that is time consuming, meaning they will be amused for at least an hour so you can work. The AtHomeMomblog.com has put together a list of 15 activities to keep kids busy. Here’s another list of activities from Workathome.org. Finally, the article 94 Ways to Keep the Kids Busy for the Work at Home Parent at the Sparkplugging site. It nicely divides the activities by age. Figure out which of these activities keep your kids most busy and have at it.

5. Work outside – If you have a laptop and wireless internet connection, go out in the backyard to do your work. While it is a little distracting (focus, focus), you can go sit on the patio and watch your kids play with the hose, jump on the trampoline, or run around and collect bugs. Another idea is to go to the library. Let the kids read books and play in the play area (if there is one) while you sit at the computers and do your work. You will still need to supervise your children but they might sit quietly for while.

I hope one of these ideas brings you some relief. If you have any other tips that work for you, please share!

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Tags: Help Mom Stay Organized · Parenting Tips

This contest is now closed. Please check out our next contest where you could win a fun, rainy day arts & craft package for kids with our popular Alex Toys craft kits. Congratulations to Cindi for winning the Playful Chef kids cooking sets!

To help the Chocolate Cake Club celebrate their third birthday, we are giving away some of our new or top-selling items to lucky winners every three days until the end of April. Our first givewaway was The Birthday Interview Box, our second giveaway featured some fabulous momAgenda Planners and Calendars, and our last giveaway included a few of the new Playful Chef Kids Cooking Sets.

Our fourth contest this Birthday Season makes a great Mother’s Day Gift. The brand new, stylish and yet incredibly functional, Mrs. Smith’s Diaper Bags are designed and manufactured by a fellow Mom entrepreneur. We wish these diaper bags were around when we needed them.

One lucky winner will receive the Pink Polka Dot Mrs. Smith’s Diaper Bag. She will not only look tres chic when she’s out and about, but she will just love the pull-out drawer and how easy she’ll be able to find things in the bag.

The Mrs. Smith’s Diaper Bags by WhodaThought are designed by Rachel Palmateer Smith, a mother of two, who was frustrated by the lack of functionality in most diaper bags. After several accidents with bottles leaking on clothes and never being able to find something in her old diaper bag, she sat down and sketched a bag that would make life easier for busy Moms – especially a Mom who is on the go and wants a bag that works with her lifestyle. We love these stylish bags in fun florals, metallics, camo and zebra prints. But we go gaga for the pull out drawer in the bottom of all of the Mrs. Smith’s diaper bags. It’s a joy to pull out a clean set of clothes and not have cheerios stuck to them.

So, how do you enter? Just leave us a comment on this post about who gave you the diaper bag you used the most – Mom, friend, hospital, co-worker, sister, husband, yourself, etc. Don’t forget to include your email address so we can contact you, if you win. We respect your privacy and your email address will never be sold. One lucky winner will be chosen at random. Must be 18 or older to enter. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents only. One entry per contest, please. If winner fails to respond in three days a new winner will be chosen. This contest ends at Midnight CST on Sunday, April 26, 2009. Next contest begins on Monday, April 27th so check back to win again.

Good luck and tell all of your friends to enter!

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Tags: Contests · Cool Finds · Help Mom Stay Organized · Ideas on Gifts for Big Occasions

Ready, Set, Declutter!

Welcome Back! This is Part 3 in a series of tips on How to Control the Mail Clutter. The last post gave you some ideas on how to create a temporary storage place for mail that keeps the clutter to a minimum. So, what are you waiting for? Attack the piles!

Step 1: Get a filing folder of some kind. Or get a desk letter sorter and use labeled manilla folders. Get a binder with pocket folders inside. Anything that works for you. If you need help, check out our Mom’s Life Organizers. We have Organizers for Kids’ Papers, Instruction Manuals, Take-Out Menus, Shopping and even Family Vacations to help you keep your paperwork in one place and easy to find.

Step 2: Now, gather up every pile of mail that you have in the house. Sort it into categories. There you have the amount of folders you need. Label them, put the mail in their respective places, and viola! You can see your counters.

Step 3: Go to the mailbox and get today’s mail. Now, walk over to the recycle bin to sort it. It makes life so much easier to be able to immediately pitch items that you don’t want. Don’t even let it in the house. Weed out the junk and don‘t give it a chance to form a pile in the house. Not only does it make you feel better that you are helping the environment by recycling but there is some weird satisfaction to saying “I don’t want you” to the mail and seeing it gone immediately.

Step 4: The hard part is the discipline. Make yourself a deal. If you sort the mail and use the folders like this for a week, give yourself a piece of chocolate cake as a reward. Second week, do the same thing. Third week – it should be starting to become habit and you don’t need to eat as much cake. (Eat the cake for another reason, now.)

TIP: Another way to get a handle on the mail is to reduce the amount of mail that you get. You can go to Optoutprescreen.com to opt-out of all credit card and insurance offers. This alone reduced my mail by half. You can opt out electronically for five years, or print a form to mail in to opt-out permanently. You do need to share your social security number so if you aren’t comfortable doing so online, you can mail it in or call 888-5-OPTOUT. You can also go to the Direct Marketing Association’s Mail Preference Service website.

For a $1 fee, they will help to remove your name and address from prospective mailing lists. This may prevent you from getting any catalogs, new catalogs, coupons or business announcements but if you throw all of that out anyway, then sign up for help.

If this seems overwhelming, then take small steps. Do a little everyday until you see the piles start to disappear. OK, feel better? Take a deep breath and enjoy this Chocolate Cake Moment because you have taken back your countertops. (You might need to wipe them down now that you can actually see them.)

Do you have a good system to control the mail clutter? If so, please share it with us.

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Tags: Help Mom Stay Organized

No More Piles! Stop the Madness!

Welcome Back! This is Part 2 in a series of tips on How to Control the Mail Clutter. The first part concentrated on the “Touch It Once” Rule to keep some control over how much mail accumulates in your house. However, I realize that this rule doesn’t apply to everything. Some mail, as much as I hate to say it, needs to sit around for a few days. Say it isn’t so! But that doesn’t mean that you have to live with clutter. (Moms, you live with enough other stuff. Say “No” to clutter!)

To beat the clutter elves and stop the mail pile madness, you need to designate a special place where mail gets stored temporarily. We use a hanging file folder that we found at the Container Store. It is basically an accordion file folder but you hang it on the wall and the folders cascade down so you can see the tabs on all sections. The goal our family set for this file folder is that it is a place to store items for no more than a week or two. Bills, coupons, invitations, school event flyers, financial statements, etc. – this is their temporary home to keep the clutter off of the tables and counters until we pay them, take them to the office to be filed permanently, or throw them out. At the Chocolate Cake Club, we sell Bill Payer Organizer Folder that basically does the same thing but it doesn’t hang on the wall.

With these organizers you can customize the folder names and temporarily store the papers you need. Here are some of the folders that we have created to deal with the mess o’mail:

Bills. Once a week I grab all items in this folder, walk to my computer and pay them online or write a check. I do it every Friday morning. By making it a habit, I don’t forget to pay them and I pay frequently enough that I’m not paying bills late and racking up late fees.

Kids. This file folder holds our flyers from daycare, school, or sport teams that we might need to look at frequently for a week or two, but then we can throw it out. If your kids aren’t in school yet, just wait. You’ll be amazed at the amount of paperwork and “homework” Mom gets. The momAgenda Kitchen Folio works well for keeping the kids papers in one place.

Artwork. I store all of the cool artwork the kids bring home everyday and once a week I decide to pitch it, hang it, or put it in their Kids Artwork Storage Folders to save for posterity.

Filing. This is where the mutual fund, bank, tax, medical, and receipt statements go that need to be filed and saved. On Friday when I pay the bills, I also carry these items into the office where they go in our more permanent hanging folders in our office credenza. This is where we file all paperwork that needs to be saved for 1 – 3 years.

Coupons. If a store sends us a direct mailer with a coupon offer, I store it here in the folder. Then if I am heading to the store I know where it is and can easily grab it. Once the sale is up – pitch it! I can also hold the coupons here until I transfer them to a Shopping Coupon Organizer, which I keep in my car. You never know when you will be near a Gymboree and want that 30% off coupon.

Shred. We get so many credit card applications that I have to cry at all of the trees that are being cut down for NOTHING! With all of the reports on identity theft and fraud, we definitely want to shred these credit card applications. So I file them temporarily and once a week I turn the shredder on to get rid of them. Don’t let these intimidate you. File and shred. File and shred!

TIP: Put your mail filing folder near where you normally sort the mail. We come into our house through the garage and the first room is our laundry room. The top of the washer and dryer had become our sort and mail pile mess area. So, we hang our mail file folder right there on the wall in the laundry room. The goal is that the mail shouldn’t accidentally sneak out of this room until we are ready. Back mail, back! Sort it, act on it, and temporarily file it right here as you walk in the house.

Tomorrow, we’ll give you the last posting on How to Control the Mail Clutter.

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Tags: Help Mom Stay Organized

Does it seem like every time you turn around there are more and more stacks of mail piling up in your house? Do elves come in and wave a magic wand to watch your mail piles grow? Do they get points for this? If only the tooth fairy would leave us a dollar for every piece of mail!

When I rid my house of mail clutter and feel more in control, I’m having a Chocolate Cake Moment, baby. So I have written a three part series on some ideas to rid your house of mail clutter so you can have your own Chocolate Cake Moment by taking control of the mail that never stops.

HERE’S THE MAIL, IT NEVER FAILS …

Mail is like a weed, if you don’t create a routine to manage it, it multiplies like crazy and will take over any free space you have in your house. One day I looked around my house and saw paper piles on the kitchen counter, the kitchen table, the wash machine, the family room coffee table, my office desk, the printer, the stairs and in a stack in my car. Agh! The National Association of Professional Organizers estimates that 25% of Americans pay their bills late because they can’t find them. I know I’ve called Visa begging for forgiveness from late fees as I explained that I put the bill in a pile and forgot about it.

I’ve blamed all of this on the clutter elves so that I don’t have to face up to the fact that I created the piles to begin with. Feel free to create your own fictional creature to blame.

I decided that this clutter was a problem and I went about looking for the following tips and tricks to help me get control of the paperwork chaos. Not all of these tips may work with your lifestyle but hopefully some of them will be easy for you to adapt. This is the first of three posts on How to Control the Mail Clutter.

The “Touch it Once” Rule

While this rule can’t appeal for every piece of mail that comes in the door it has certainly helped me strive to meet the goal. The Rule is simple. Only touch each piece of mail once. Open it, act on it, and then file it or throw it away. If you get a bill in the mail, open it next to where you store your checkbook, pay the bill and move on. This way it is done and won’t be hanging over your head. Put it in the paid bill file, shred it or throw it away but don’t leave it sitting in a pile anywhere in the house.

Let’s say you receive a birthday party invitation for your kids in the mail. Call and RSVP immediately! Write the date and time in the Family Calendar so everyone can see the event or enter it into your Electronic Organizer or Planner. {Tip: Also enter an appointment to go shopping for the birthday gift so you don‘t have to scramble at the last minute.} Then you can put the invitation away in a temporary file folder to wait for the day you need the directions. Again, don’t put it in a pile and forget to RSVP so you have to make that apologetic phone call. Touch it once.

However, I do realize that the “Touch it Once” Rule can’t apply to everything. Or, you may have a system where you pay bills online once a month so you can’t drop everything and pay the bill as it arrives in the house. In that case, never fear! We can deal with this but you need to designate a place to put these bills or mail so that you can easily find them and keep control over the paper chaos.

Check in tomorrow for my next tip on How to Control the Mail Clutter.

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Tags: Help Mom Stay Organized