Busy Moms Do It Smarter!

Your kids want to see you in the classroom, right? You don’t have a lot of time, right? Busy moms are… BUSY!  Between working full time jobs or work-from-home jobs or just the dang dishes(!) moms are exhausted people.

But it’s been shown that children literally do better in school when parents are more involved. How do you help more and not get overwhelmed?

VolunteerSpot is a cool tech tool!

VolunteerSpot (www.VolunteerSpot.com) is a very simple, online coordinating tool that makes it easy for any room mom, teacher or parent to ask for help. (And more help equals a less exhausted mom!)

More than ¾ of a million people have already signed up to help using VolunteerSpot and our research shows that an average of 20 percent more volunteers get involved when our free electronic signup tools are used!

• Simple Planning — VolunteerSpot works just like an online party invitation — you quickly and easily set up everything you need people to do or to bring and then you invite parents to sign up for their  ‘spot’.

• Link Up! — Parents either get an emailed invitation or click a link on the classroom website or facebook page.

• Easy Peasy — Click the link on your computer or smartphone screen to see all the shifts or items to be filled and choose the one that works for your schedule.

• Never Forget Again — VolunteerSpot sends automated confirmation and reminder messages that help everyone keep their commitments.

• Use it Anywhere — VolunteerSpot is also great for organizing the soccer snack schedule, swim team, Scout campout and fundraisers like school carnivals, bake sales and book fairs.

When more parents get involved, more kids are the winners. Go back to school with your kids this year! And right now you can help your school be a winner, enter to win $500 worth of school supplies for your school on the VolunteerSpot facebook page.

Brought to you by the team at VolunteerSpot….

About the author: Carissa Rogers is a busy mom of 3 and blogs at GoodNCrazy.com and VolunteerSpot. When she’s not playing photographer, leading the PTO, or chasing kids to and fro she’s connecting, consulting, freelancing and lots of other -ings …a mom of all trades

Leymah Gbowee by Michael Angelo for Wonderland

I watched Ben Affleck and Cindy McCain on Good Morning America today trying to bring attention to what is happening to the women in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are 68 Million people in the Congo, it is the 3rd largest country in Africa. Since 1998, over 5 million people have died from violence, poverty, and disease.1.3 million have been forced from their homes. Women have born the brunt of the burden, both paying in the lives of their children and as victims of militia rapes. As Cindy McCain said, “We could lose a generation of women and children.” It can be discouraging to hear those numbers and to understand the profound and long term impact of what happens when you decide that the systematic destruction of women is a battle plan.

But there is good news in Africa, like in Liberia. In fact, the story of women in Liberia is remarkable. When the country descended into civil war, Leymah Gbowee led her countrywomen in three years of non-violent protests and sit-ins, and then in something even more remarkable. Christian and Muslim women came together in 2002 to refuse sex to their husbands until the violence stopped. It worked. The president now is Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a woman, who by all accounts is healing that country.

In a great article for the Daily Beast, Leymah Gbowee says “Women brought sanity to Liberia,” and urges African women to create “peaceful havoc” in their own countries, to stop rape as a weapon as war. The women in Sierra Leone demanded free and fair elections. From the Congo, to Rwanda, and Burundi, women can, if they bind together, protect victims and families by exercising their powerful voices.

There is also news that China may lift the one-child policy in favor of a two-child policy. Despite those considerations, women, depending on the province, are forced to undergo abortions, even into the 7th, 8th, and 9th months of pregnancy for attempting to have another child. You are probably as horrified as I was when I heard their stories; it’s disgusting. Lifting the one-child policy is the first step in restoring mothers’ control of their own bodies. And, as it turns out, when the Chinese government allowed a pilot two-child program, some families opted for one child anyway. You mean, women can make the decision that’s right for their own families? How strange!

For Americans, we remain the only industrialized country in the world that does not offer maternity leave; we have the worst infant mortality rate among industrialized countries. However, those are fixable problems: we can demand a paid maternity leave if we decide we really want it. We can expand prenatal education, invest in teen pregnancy prevention programs, and expand access to health care, which should lower the infant mortality rate. Things aren’t hopeless, and we have the power to affect change if we decide we want it.

Just like our sisters all over the world.

Saving money is important at every turn. Our family has cut back on many items and so we got creative to come up with other ways to pinch pennies. Here are our ideas increasing value and reducing cost.

This is our journey to find answers. We do experiments, complete survey’s, read books, surf the web and ask experts to find out the answers to our every day questions.

Fox 43 anchor Heather Warner shares her cravings and gives advice to expectant mothers in southcentral Pennsylvania.