Kristen Keller lives in New Jersey with her two young boys, husband and two dogs. In an effort to obtain the perfect work-life balance, Kristen works part-time out of her home office as an independent public relations consultant and spends the rest of her time striving to give her children the same wonderful childhood experience she had. Click here to check out Kristen’s other posts on This Mommy Gig.

Read on for the chance to win a selection of Weiman cleaning products! Yes, again! Previous winners encouraged to enter………

My poor house. Work has been nothing short of insane for the past couple of months. During that time, if I wasn’t with my boys, I was working. During naps? Working. After they went to bed? Working. Watching a cartoon? Working. So, as is always the case when this happens, the condition of my house became the lowest of low priorities.

It goes without saying, then, that when I did find some time to devote to my house, I was ecstatic to have some Weiman cleaning products that I had recently received for review on-hand.

Weiman® Cook Top® Glass Cook Top Cleaner and Weiman Cook Top Scrubbing Pads

Before

The combination I was particularly excited to try out was the Cook Top Glass Cook Top Cleaner with the Cook Top scrubbing pads. We purchased a brand new glass top stove just a few months ago; shortly after, there were so many burn marks on it that you would never have known we just got it! Ever since, I have been trying to get those marks off, but my efforts have gone unrewarded.

I had been searching and searching for something I could use to really scrub the stove top without scratching it. The Weiman Cook Top Scrubbing Pads with Cook Top Cleaner guarantee no scratches and ended up being the answer I had been looking for. I was able to get rid of most of the burn marks, and it is looking as close to new as I have seen it since the day it came into our home.

The Glass Cook Top Cleaner is available at Ace Hardware, Expo Design Center, Kmart, Target, True Value and Wal-Mart. The scrubbing pads are available at Ace Hardware, True Value and Wal-Mart.

After

Weiman Squeeze & Clean Floor Cleaner

Between having a black lab mix (translating into a never-ending battle with shedding) and two young boys, I welcome a product that makes cleaning the floors as easy as possible. And the ability to clean both my linoleum and hardwood floors with the same product? Even better!

I tried this out on my kitchen floor and appreciated the fact that all I had to do was squeeze it directly from the bottle onto my floor and spread with a damp mop – no bucket necessary. I was pleased with the results. Not only did it remove the stains, sticky spots and slippery places (slippery from morning sunscreen applications), but the smell was quite pleasant.

In addition to wood and linoleum floors, it can be used on vinyl, laminate, ceramic tile, marble, grouted tile and non-porous hard surface flooring. And for all the environmentally conscious people out there, the Squeeze & Clean Floor Cleaner is an all-natural, plant-derived cleaning solution; in fact, it was created in partnership with the EPA’s Design for the Environment program.

The Squeeze & Clean Floor Cleaner is available through Weiman’s Web site or by phone (888-281-6400).

Weiman offers many other types of cleaning products as well. Check out their entire product lineup at www.weiman.com/products. You can also read Diane’s review of her Weiman products.

Contest

To enter the contest, you need to comment here and tell us the ONE room in your house that you care most about being clean. Every mom or woman or PERSON probably has something to share, so I expect a lot of entries! EVERYONE eligible to enter, but only 1 entry per person.

There will be 3 winners of a sampling of Weiman products (including the new eco-friendly cleaners Perfect Planet). The winners will be chosen by drawing names from a virtual hat. The contest will close on Monday, July 7.

EDITED to add: This contest will stay open until August 1st so there are enough entrants to choose from! C’mon, we ALL need cleaning products!

In our constant quest to make this a better place, we’d love your input on our site! We’d love if you would take a few seconds and take this 2-question survey to make This Mommy Gig even more fabulous.

What’s in it for you? Follow the below instructions - we’ll be choosing 2 lucky winners to receive $5 Starbucks gift cards! Caffeine makes this world go ’round, especially for parents, right?

Of course, if you just want to help us out and take the poll but NOT enter the contest, that’s more than wonderful and we’ll love you forever for taking the time to give us your opinion! Scroll down just a teeny bit for the questions - and don’t worry, the poll is anonymous!

To enter the contest:

1) Take the poll - answer BOTH questions please!
2) Leave a comment telling us that you took the poll (don’t have to share your answers, though)
AND
3) in that comment, tell us what your favorite post is so far AND WHY it’s your favorite.

We really want this to about our readers, not just a free-for-all contest, thus a few minor hoops to jump through! Of course, this is open to anyone - you just have to know enough about our site to be able to answer the questions, not too difficult.

The contest will end July 8th, but the poll will remain open after that.

We look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Note: Make sure to click “Vote” after EACH question!

Sherry Carr Deer is a Mommy to Nicholas who just turned 3, fiance to William, the widow of Mark, and a PR professional at a non-profit hospital. You can read more of her posts here.  

Before we were even pregnant with our son, my late husband and I talked about manners and how we would teach them to any children we had. One of my pet peeves is rude people. There is just no reason for it, and it bugs me to no end.

After Mark died, I had many occasions when I wondered if he didn’t know that he wouldn’t be here to help raise Nicholas. One of those occasions was a list Mark made of things he wanted Nicholas to know or do or love. One of those items was to be respectful of people and have good manners (we both thought that was the point of having good manners, to show people you respect them).

So, I’ve been noticing lately that the manners are starting to kick in with Nicholas. He’s been saying, “Please” and “Thank You” for a while now after William and I have asked him to. But, now I’ve been seeing him making the connection. When someone does something for Nicholas, or he needs something, he says thank you and asks nicely. After his 3rd birthday party a few weeks ago, after he opened his gifts, he shouted, “Thank you for my presents and for coming to my party!” We are having to tell him, though, that just because he asks nicely for things, doesn’t mean he’ll get them.

Nicholas recently started daycare after having been with a Nanny his first year and his grandparents his second year. The staff at the daycare comments on not only what a nice boy he is, but also how polite he is. He’s aware of the need to share (even if he doesn’t want to), and is appreciative of people (as much as a 3 year old is).

Yes, it’s a point of pride for me that my son is well mannered. But it’s also a lot of work. We were talking at work the other day about some family visiting a coworker. She was bothered by having to tell her nephew to greet his grandmother when she walked in the house and having to tell him to help his grandmother to the car. We all talked about the constant vigilance it takes to make sure that your child is aware of the many ways you are polite and respectful to people. My co-workers with teenagers talked about how, often, those manner don’t show up as consistantly at home, but that they are told how good their children are by other people. There could be worse things people could say about your kids!

Last night when I gave Nicholas his vitamin, he looked at me with his sweet smile and said, “Mommy, thank you for buying me Scooby Doo bone vitamins.” I will have to remember these sweet manners when he’s a teenager who is a jerk at home, but well-mannered toward other people.

Amy Giampetroni is a happily married woman, a full-time stay-at-home mom to a preschool boy and a part-time stepmom to an adolescent girl, living in Wisconsin. You can read more about Amy here and at her blog, Average Everyday Super Woman. Click here to check out Amy’s other posts on This Mommy Gig.

Late Sunday afternoon I returned from a week of vacation up in northern Wisconsin with my entire family and all I can say is, “Oy vey!”

For starters, many of you have heard - or experienced - the severe flooding that ravaged much of southern Wisconsin earlier this month. Unfortunately, it was the source of major headaches for me and many other travelers heading west or north on Friday, June 13th (yes, I’m aware of the superstitious nature of that date, believe me!). Case in point: What is typically no more than a six hour drive took me over eight hours to complete.

I was supposed to meet my mother north of Madison in the mid-afternoon and caravan up north with her, but I simply couldn’t get through to Madison, no matter how hard or what route I tried. I was rerouted no fewer than four times just between Milwaukee and Madison, at which point I gave up trying to head west and simply chose to head north. Unfortunately, my efforts to travel north to reconnect with Hwy. 51 proved completely fruitless, and I ended up being rerouted (no fewer than five times) so infuriatingly far east that I realized I’d have been entirely better off if I’d just left from MIlwaukee heading north in the first place!

To make matters worse, while completely lost somewhere in Fond du Lac county, I unintentionally exceeded the speed limit on my way through a small town in the middle of nowhere while trying to find a highway sign I might recognize from my last map-checking stop that would get me heading NORTH. I was so frustrated and exhausted that I almost burst into tears (that’s so cliche, isn’t it?), but I simply didn’t have the energy at that point.

I tried calmly explaining to the officer the ridiculous, endlessly frustrating, and heavily rerouted journey I’d already been on and the fact that I was still hours away from my destination and had no idea how to get there from where we sat on the side of the road. The officer just nodded his head and asked me about my driving record; I said it was perfect (which it was). I presumed that he’d asked the question so he could decide whether to ticket me or warn me, and I prayed he’d show mercy and just let me off with a warning (which I’d most certainly have heeded). Unfortunately, he happened to be a hard-nosed guy who seemed to take an excessive amount of joy in giving me my first speeding ticket, worth FOUR points on my record. Grrrr… I left with a bitter taste in my mouth (and many curse words curled up a little deeper down) and some patronizingly given directions which the officer said “should” get me back to Highway 51 (never mind that I’d already heard that word more times than I cared to count that day).

Another four hours later, I finally reached my destination. We rolled up to the lake house after 10pm… We should’ve been there by 7pm. My younger brother had a cold beer waiting for me, God bless him.

Here’s the good part: I love my family. I love spending time with my parents, my brothers and my sister, and their families. We have SO much fun together, laugh so hard, play games of Cranium and Texas Hold ‘Em, and just enjoy our week together more than I can possibly say. Within an hour, my brother had me laughing so hard my sides hurt, and all my silly woes of the day melted away.

Unfortunately, the flooded and impassible roads weren’t the only things foiling all of our best-laid plans: Mother Nature had more surprises in store. Last year’s vacation was my definition of perfect in terms of weather, with 75-80 degree temperatures and plenty of sunshine every single day. This year? Not so much. We got lucky two days when the temperature went above 70 degrees, but we could only swim on one of those days because the other came with winds so chilly that the mere thought of coming out of cold water into colder wind sent chills down our collective spines.

On the plus side, where the weather was so gorgeous last year that we spent all our time in the water, this year we actually spent a bit more time in town, shopping and go-carting, which is always a big hit with my family, from my 5-year-old son and nephew right up to my fifty-something parents!

I always hate when the fun comes to an end, and it always comes too soon with some of my siblings, who have to leave early due to work or other plans. My sister and nephew left on Wednesday afternoon because my sister - a nurse practitioner in the Eau Claire area - had to work Thursday and Friday, and my brother and sister-in-law left Thursday afternoon because my brother had to attend his best friend’s rehearsal dinner and wedding Friday night and Saturday back in the Madison area. While it was lovely to spend a few days alone with my parents, I hate seeing my sibs leave early, not to mention that it was hard for my son not to have his nephew to play with.

This was a bittersweet trip to the lake house, as the owners of the house informed me a month ago that they may sell the house this year. It needs a LOT of work and they haven’t got the time or resources to keep up with it anymore, not to mention that the husband has MS and simply isn’t physically able to do the work himself these days. My parents considered making an offer, but I’m really not kidding when I say the house needs a TON of work - as in, it’s probably best to look at razing it and rebuilding. And at the price my friend and her husband were tossing around, that just wouldn’t be feasible for my parents. Which means that we will have to find another place to rent before next June to continue the family fun. That’s fine and all, and I’m sure we’ll have fun wherever we go. But it’ll be hard not to return to the same place our children and we have come to love over the past four years.

Oh well. Here’s to another fun week with my family, and to many, many more, wherever we may be!

Kate Olson is a mother of 2 toddlers and lives in rural Wisconsin. She balances motherhood & working from home in a semi-functional fashion - you can read more about Kate on our contributors page. She blogs about education and lots of business/tech stuff at Kate Says . Want more? Read all of Kate’s posts!

I almost spit out my diet Nestea when reading an article in the latest Parents magazine about social interactions for kids - these articles always are a bit much for me, but this one really blew me away. In the same 2-paragraph piece, the author states that playdates just aren’t enough for preschool age children and they really need to attend preschool to get the appropriate interactions - then goes on to say that although the children are in preschool, they still need one-on-one interactions with other children and parents need to schedule at least 2 playdates per week!

Are you kidding me? Maybe I’m living in a really strange area, but the thought of most of the moms I know managing to fit in 2 scheduled playdates each week on top of working and managing other activities is just ludicrous. Maybe you’ll all tell me that where YOU live, kids go to preschool and have 5 playdates every week and I’m a weirdo - that’s fine, I guess I’ll learn something from it! It’s just that the reality of life for working moms does NOT equate to time for multiple playdates after a child has been in daycare and preschool all day - when would the children hang out with mom and dad?

I really think this might be one of the biggest dividing factors between moms who work at a job OTHER than parenting and moms who stay at home with their children full-time. Remember, I’ve done both - no judgments being made here. My take on this? I believe that my kids are getting incredibly valuable social interactions at the loving in-home daycare they attend and therefore, no additional playdates are necessary unless I can somehow squeeze one in on the weekend.

Oh, and trying to SCHEDULE playdates when I AM home? HA! HA again! First of all, right now I’m at home with the kiddos for the summer (they’ll go back to daycare in the fall), BUT I’m working at home at the same time. Not an ideal situation and definitely fodder for another post. Anyway, I’m at home with my kids and could technically schedule “dates” whenever I’d like to. Here’s why it isn’t happening:

• Friend #1’s son takes his nap opposite of when my kids take their naps PLUS Friend #1 works outside of the house half-days
• Friend #2’s kids don’t really take naps and their best time to play is when my kids are taking theirs
• Friend #3 works really strange hours and I never have any idea of when she’ll be able to meet up, plus, her 2 older kids get WAY bored when they hang out with us
• Friend #4 has such a busy life when she’s home during the summer that I’m sure I won’t get a glimpse of her child - oh, and they live 40 minutes away. Did I mention nap schedules?
• All of the above have husbands who are home at different times and actually want to spend TIME with their families, therefore dad time = no playdate time.

I’d like to pretend that I have oodles more friends that I’m just not listing here, but we just don’t have a ton of close friends that have kids the same age as ours AND I’m just not the type to hang out at someone’s house, or invite them to my own, if we don’t know one another very well. The playdate social situation is pretty awkward for me in that regard………..sigh.

Am I harming my kids?

Hmmmmm, I’d like to think not. In the same way that I don’t want to hear that I poisoned my children by using plastic baby bottles, I’d really prefer not to believe that I’m stunting their social growth by not scheduling multiple, one-on-one playdates each week.

If the article is right, though, they’re pretty much guaranteed to blame me for everything at some point in their lives, so this is great fodder for future therapy sessions.

Kate Olson is a mother of 2 toddlers and lives in rural Wisconsin. She balances motherhood & working from home in a semi-functional fashion - you can read more about Kate on our contributors page. She blogs about education and lots of business/tech stuff at Kate Says . Want more? Read all of Kate’s posts!

Why I love my husband - Exhibit A:

We live the books we read to our kids - seriously.

We’re walking through the airport on our trip to New Orleans with another couple - NO kids. We stop to eat. I look over at him and he’s looking REALLY full. I ask if he’s feeling ok. His reply?

“I’d better stop now or I’ll be just like Fancy Nancy.”

We’re eating supper. Our 2 year old daughter doesn’t want to try something. His response?

“Remember how Sam I Am didn’t want to eat the green eggs and ham, but then he finally tried them and he liked them?

How could I NOT love a man who publicly and proudly refers to Fancy Nancy in an adult setting and brings up Green Eggs and Ham at random moments? When I hear other moms complaining about dads not doing enough with their kids, I keep my mouth shut but I know how lucky I am…….our kids know too.

***The Fancy Nancy book I’m referring to is “Fancy Nancy At the Museum” (an I Can Read book) - it’s about Nancy on her class trip to the museum where she eats too much for lunch and gets sick on the bus…….our 2 year old LOVES Fancy Nancy - who doesn’t?

Edited to add: Hey, check out this awesome contest where you can win a Fancy Nancy Doll! The contest is open until July 10 and there are 5 dolls being given away - it’s soooo easy to win.

Diane Cordell is the mother of two adult, married children. In her position as a K-12 teacher/librarian, she interacts with students of all ages on a daily basis - good practice for future grandchildren! You can read more about Diane here. Diane also blogs at Journeys and can be found on Twitter as dmcordell. Click here to read more of Diane’s posts.

Saturday morning, my husband and I will leave for San Antonio. I’ll be participating in NECC 2008 (the National Educational Computing Conference); Tim will be visiting art museums and checking out the “Cold Margaritas and Hot Senoritas” (Hmmm).

I’ve already mentioned in Twitter that we’ll only be taking carry-on luggage: a duffel bag for hubby, and a backpack, with laptop compartment, and a small handbag for me. After a few less than successful incidents with airline baggage handling, we’re convinced that traveling light is the only way to reach your destination with wardrobe intact.

If you would like to follow our example, you might want to visit One Bag for tips on how to avoid overpacking.

A challenge faced by vacationers hoping to travel light is the restriction on the type and size of liquids and gels that are permitted in carry-ons. The Department of Homeland Security’s TSA gives updates on the current regulations on its site. Remember 3-1-1…no more than 3 ounces per container packed in a 1 quart ziploc bag with 1 bag permitted per traveler.

The size of the carry-on is also important. Rules vary by airline, but a general rule of thumb given by the FAA is “the maximum size carry-on bag for most airlines is 45 linear inches (the total of the height, width, and depth of the bag). Anything larger should be checked.”

A final tip to make your trip less stressful: go to Expedia and read the guide to whichever airports you connect through. There you will find information about food, shops, activities, even smoking areas. Rather than settle for the limited (or non-existent) food choices on an airplane, purchase a sandwich or regional specialty to munch on. Oh, and be sure to include some extra ziploc bags to contain leftovers - you don’t want any drips or leaks to stain your pared-down wardrobe! [I usually tuck in a Tide pen, just in case]

I love to travel and am very excited about exploring San Antonio for the first time. I’m bringing along a small tote bag to contain any tiny treasures we find there. Anything larger can be shipped home.

No checked luggage for this couple - we want to get there and go, not wait at a carousel for cases that have taken an unexpected left at Albuquerque !

“Suitcases” by masochismtango

Kate Olson is a mother of 2 toddlers and lives in rural Wisconsin. She balances motherhood & working from home in a semi-functional fashion - you can read more about Kate on our contributors page. She blogs about education and lots of business/tech stuff at Kate Says . Want more? Read all of Kate’s posts!

Read on to win a set of the Laugh and Learn DVDs!

In my never-ending quest for products that would have made my journey into motherhood easier and less scary, I was recently approached about reviewing the Laugh and Learn childcare, breastfeeding and birthing DVDs. I’m obviously a glutton for punishment, because the entire time I was watching these classes by Sheri Bayles I was kicking myself for not having these DVDs when I was pregnant for the first time.

Sheri is, according to her website, “an award winning Certified Lamaze Instructor and International Board Certified Lactation Consultant with 20 years of experience teaching at New York Presbyterian Hospital.” She has taught over 4,000 couples (including celebrities!) the methods, tips, and tricks of breastfeeding, childbirth and newborn care. You can see on her website the numerous celebrities who love this DVD series and also the magazines which reviewed the DVDs - I figured she must be doing something right! After watching the set of classes, I joined the Laugh and Learn fan club.

You may be asking why I’m so enamored of a set of DVDs that I don’t technically even need anymore - am I right? Well, when I was pregnant for the first time, my husband was really reluctant to attend childbirth classes and actually our schedule didn’t permit us to attend anything other then the weekend course that our hospital offered. This was a 2 day course that covered EVERYTHING in 2, 8-hour sessions. I wasn’t at all interested in sitting through that and neither was my husband. I thought about finding some DVDs, but didn’t know of any that were worth even checking out from the library at the time. Therefore, we didn’t do ANY childbirth preparation besides what was offered in the books that I obsessively collected at the time.

I would have absolutely LOVED it if a friend would have handed me the 2-disc set of the Laugh and Learn “About Childbirth” class! My husband and I would have been able to watch bits and pieces of the class whenever we had the time and could do so from the comfort of our own home. I never ended up taking a childbirth preparation class and really wish that I had this DVD available to me at the time.

The breastfeeding class DVD and newborn care DVD would have also been immensely helpful to me when I was a brand-new mom. As it was, I never took a breastfeeding class the first time around and ended up taking one when I was pregnant with my second child. The class wasn’t half as informative as the Laugh and Learn breastfeeding class and the DVD version offers the benefit of being able to review the material again as well as have it on hand when you actually have the baby and are having problems with nursing.

Sheri Bayles does an excellent job of presenting the material in a light, non-judgemental way. She makes it seem normal to be apprehensive about childbirth and breastfeeding and doesn’t make light of the fears that many new mothers face. She uses humor to lighten the mood and is very easy to watch and listen to.

The bottom line?

I’d definitely recommend these DVDs to expecting mothers - both first time moms and those looking for a refresher course. They’d be great baby shower or “yay, you’re finally pregnant” gifts - now I just keep wishing I would have had them when I needed them!

Buy them!

The complete set of DVDs sells for $79.95, which is a great deal compared to face-to-face classes. The DVDs retail individually for $24.95 each for the breastfeeding and newborn care classes and $39.99 for the childbirth 2-disc set. You can buy the DVDs at the Laugh and Learn website. Free shipping for U.S. orders - I LOVE free shipping!

Win a Set of Laugh and Learn DVDs!

We’re able to offer 2 sets of the Laugh and Learn DVDs to our readers - that’s great for you or any expecting mothers you might know!

To enter the contest, simply leave a comment here telling us who you’d think would most appreciate the set if you win - maybe it’s you, maybe a friend, sister, daughter, daughter-in-law - it doesn’t matter! Just tell us who would benefit from Sheri’s classes, it’s as simple as that.

This contest ends on June 30, 2008.