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Category Archives: Parenting

June 4 Virtual Book Launch Party For My Parent Plan & Other Authors

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Photo Credit: Emily Scheinman @BananaSeedBooks

Last week, I shared information on my trip to Book Expo America NYC to announce the revised version of my book “My Parent Plan: How to Create a Family Project Plan to Organize Your Life and Kids” . At the Book Expo book signing, I enjoyed discussing the concepts of my book with enthusiastic readers. This experience confirmed why I wrote the book in the first place: to help parents find a system to manage their family – one of the most complex and rewarding examples of project management. I talked to brave military moms who need to manage their family while their husbands are on deployment for long periods of time. I talked to single parents, educators and nannies who want to learn family project planning tips. And I talked to many parents who shared their family management struggles.

 

My Parent Plan explains that a plan is a journey, not a destination. My Parent Plan empowers parents to step back and think about their daily, weekly, seasonal and yearly activities. This gives families the time to find the right information, identify budget-friendly options, consider the needs of each family member and make informed choices to create the optimal family plan. The planning process also gives families the freedom to live in the moment and engage in family time.

 

 

To celebrate the launch of “My Parent Plan” I am joining in with the other authors in the Best Seller In A Weekend program with a Virtual Book Launch Party June 4 from 1-3pm PST.

 

First of all – HERE IS THE LINK to “MY PARENT PLAN” on Amazon available NOW (CLICK HERE to buy) on JUNE 4 2013. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is information about the Virtual Book Party:

 

 

Join me on June 4, 2013, for the long-awaited celebration of the (revised version) release of my book, My Parent Plan: How to Create a Family Project Plan to Organize Your Life and Kids. Organized  by Alicia Dunams, founder of Bestseller in a Weekend, we will hold a virtual book launch party and author spotlight for me and eight other amazing non-fiction authors ( (including Barb Gottesman of How to Slay A Pirate – Lessons on Success from Sailing the Pacific). You’ll get to be one of the first to order your copy of the books (my revised book), and you’ll get to hear all of the authors share their book-writing experiences! You’ll also get free information from every book featured, providing you with real solutions and tips you can use in your own life.

 

 

 

 

Those who attend the virtual book launch party between 1 pm and 3 pm PST on June 4th will be entered into drawings to receive their own autographed copies of the authors‘ books, as well as some special bonus prizes. It’s going to be a lot of fun, but I know the celebration won’t be the same without you. To attend, SIGN UP HERE: http://bestsellervirtualparty.com and you’ll be part of the fun. I can’t wait to see you there!

 

 

 

Vilynx – a busy mom’s best friend in managing family videos

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**GUEST POST**: Winnie Root is a busy mom trying to balance between chasing after two very active boys and Director of Communications at a fast-paced Silicon Valley-based startup, Vilynx. She was invited to guest post at TechMamas.com to discuss Vilynx, a video management app for busy moms.
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Over the winter holidays, we took a couple of weeks and travelled to the mid-west to visit family and friends. It was always such a treat to visit and this year the weather even cooperated. We had the perfect snow to make a snowman and snow angels. The boys even got to sled.  Oh what fun! I could show you snapshots but a video just tells so much more.

 

 

I love family videos. We’d sit and watch family videos for hours on a Friday night. The kids love to see themselves when they were just learning to walk or sitting on a high chair making a big mess. I remember in the old days I used to have to connect my camera to my computer to upload the videos, or physically take out the card and plug in into my computer. That was so last year. These days, I use a mobile app called Vilynx to take, organize and share all my family videos.  I have Vilynx on my Android phone, my iPad, and my Nexus 7. The app allows the users to access their family videos that are stored across devices. When I take a video using Vilynx on my Android phone, I can view it on my iPad, my Nexus 7, on my computer browsers, and even on Google TV! The best part is the videos are stored in the cloud account(s) of my choice, automatically. I no longer have to worry about losing my videos or maxing out the storage on my phone.

 

 

The 5-second summary display makes it so much easier to find a particular video. The traditional thumbnail view from my film strip doesn’t always tell me what the videos contain. The Vilynx summary technology solves this problem I had.

 

 

There is also the sharing option which we all can’t live without these days. I can share my videos easily via email or on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in the same 5-second summary format as well as sharing the entire video.

 

 

 

 

 

Vilynx works on my browsers which makes it so easy to insert videos on my blog. I can now simply go to the share option on the web app, copy the iframe and paste it onto my blog. Again, the same 5-second summary format appears. See a tutorial here. If you use WordPress, you’ll have to install the iFrame Widget first.

 

As a mom, I find myself taking more and more videos. Vilynx has been a great way to capture those precious memories.

 
Disclosure: This is a guest post/ press update. This is NOT a sponsored post.
 

 

Top 10 Things That Cause Thanksgiving Anxiety and How To Deal With Them

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Like many parents, as Thanksgiving nears (it is November 22 this year -2012) so does the anxiety of work life balance. If you are entertaining, how do you have time to shop, cook and prepare food along with all of your other parental and work tasks? If you are going to someone else’s house, how do you prepare your kids to make sure they will pleasantly sit through the dinner (cellphones away – for everyone including parents). For those that have anxiety around being with large family events, how do you prepare for that.  My “go to” person when it comes to figuring out how to rid my anxiety is my favorite emotion coach (and national parenting expert) Kimberly Clayton Blaine whose website “TheGoToMom” and book “The Go-To Mom’s Parents Guide: Emotion Coaching Young Children” provide essential tips to parents.

 

Kimberley also hosts a weekly Google + Live Video broadcast each Wed. 11am pst to talk about parenting topics. Today’s topic is on Top 10 Things That Cause Thanksgiving Anxiety and How To Deal With Them, and I will be a co-host. Join us or watch the YouTube video as we share our Thanksgiving anxiety and tips we will be trying. Please also share your tips! I know I could use as many tips as possible!

 

 

Thanksgiving Google + Live show with Kimberley Blaine and Beth Blecherman: Top 10 Things That Cause Thanksgiving Anxiety and How To Deal With Them

 

 

 

 

1.  Use your good china. Life is too short not share your fancy dishes.

 

2.  Be sure you have your Happy Place ready Or a xanax around or bottle of wine popped open if your family is getting too demanding or annoying. You deserve a peaceful or at least a tolerable holiday! But don’t push the limits, you still need to be able to carry on a conversation.

 

3.  Keep it low key, if you want to reach out to  others to invite them – do it. Keeping it small is dandy too. Or make it easy and take a quick trip to restaurant!  Enjoy whoever and wherever you celebrate it with.

 

4.  Outsource your meal. Ask each guest to bring a dish. Who said you have to be chef extraordinaire every year? Or have a gourmet store prepare your whole meal and tell every one you made it. That way you WILL BE chef extraordinaire this year.

 

5.  Capture the moment – Make sure the capture Thanksgiving moments with pictures or video.. That is – as long as it is not in middle of dinner (cellphones at the table = not a good idea).

 

6.  Be Creative – if sitting together for a family dinner is not a good fit – find another way to celebrate thanksgiving. If your kids like to move, either engage in outdoor sports or find an indoor sports facility that is open. Who says you can’t celebrate thanksgiving with your family jumping together in a Trampoline facility.

**Beth added – Or if it is on a sofa together watching the Thanksgiving sports games – so be it! But she and her boys are big Baseball fans (SF Giants rock), so she wishes there were baseball games to watch Thanksgiving weekend!

 

7.  For those still dealing with Hurricane Sandy – just being together with friends or family should be the goal.

 

8.  For those that have holiday anxiety – remember it is just one night. Live in the moment – they go by fast!

 

9.  Get you activity stations ready! Have games, crafts or activities ready the day before, so you can redirect rambunctious kids to keep busy. Yelling and screaming for them to get out of you way all day, isn’t an ideal holiday and you look ridiculous in front of everyone!

 

10.   If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say it. If your mother in law makes gravy that tastes like leather, just “Smile and wave.”

 

Please share your Thanksgiving stories and tips!

 

Here is the video from our show!

 

Special thanks to Kim Tracey Prince and Jacqueline Cromwell for joining in our Google + Hangout.

 

 

 

Beth Blecherman just published her book “My Parent Plan” about project planning for families. She will be adding these tips to hers section on planning for Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

 

 

Tribute to the Dads that support Mommy Bloggers

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Originally posted to the Silicon Valley Moms Blog

Happy Father’s Day, especially to those dads who support mommy bloggers.  Mine  was at Best Buy getting the CD player in my car fixed so I could listen to my new cool CD’s (including the Red Hot Chili Peppers).  That also gave me the time to post while my
twins were napping.

These dads and other’s like them value spending time with their kids
(which they do more of because they are married to mommy bloggers).
They also value their wives enough to support them while they pursue a
personal passion. I know many other moms who are also pursuing their
personal passions; whether it is work, volunteer, or hobbies. It is
great to hear stories of their husbands, family, or partners who also
provide support.  This support is essential, especially for moms, so
they have that extra time to devote to outside interests. From my own
experience and feedback from friends, this extra time helps moms feel
balanced. Because my husband and I both blog (his blog is behind his
companies firewall), it is also an interest we can share. OK, I can be
sappy since it only happens once a year on fathers day.

So dads with blogging wives: thank you for your support, for your
willingness to work as a team, for helping edit some posts even when
you are tired from a full day of work, for not making us feel bad about
the laundry piling up, for training with us for half marathons, for making us laugh and giving us great experiences to write about, for being the plus one at the BlogHer cocktail party, and most of all for being great dads and husbands.

Here is a Silicon Valley (high tech) Father’s Day Card to all of you. As Mir from WCS said “Dads, we dig you” . Or as Cape Buffalo said “Dads Rock “.