Read on to win one of 2 copies of Alexis Martin Neely’s Wear Clean Underwear book!

As I wrote earlier this summer, my husband and I went on our first trip sans children in June. We’ve had to do some hard thinking this year while planning for all of the serious and practical things related to leaving our children for 4 days and I’d like to share a few parts my experience with you. Our journey included making our wills, choosing guardians, creating Medical Authorization forms, and a Kids Protection Plan.

First of all, I fully admit that we should have taken care of all of this approximately 2.5 years ago when our daughter was born. If not then, than sometime earlier than NOW, when we were finally being forced into making these decisions because we were leaving on a trip. How naive ARE we to think that something horrible could happen to us only when going on a trip far from home? Anyway, at least we did it now, right? Better than never.

We decided we finally had to ACT on creating our wills less than a week before we left for vacation. The main thing we were worried about was assigning someone as legal guardian of our children should we for some reason not make it home from the trip - or, as I mentioned earlier, should anything bad happen to us EVER.

Because we were so delinquent, we went the route of using an online service called LegalZoom to fulfill this need. I have to say that the process was very simple and got the job done for what we were trying to accomplish. However, when I mentioned on Twitter that we had used LegalZoom for this, I received a reply from Alexis Martin Neely who pointed me toward her book about family legal planning - what. an. eye. opener. Alexis’ main point in that message was that while LegalZoom might be appropriate for some legal needs, it might not cover everything.

I honestly spent the next hour or so poring over all of the materials and information Alexis provides for parents who are planning for their family’s future, and really wanted to bring these resources to the readers on This Mommy Gig. I actually contacted Alexis and mentioned this to her and she was so great about it! She immediately sent me a copy of her book, “Wear Clean Underwear” for review and is offering 2 books for our readers!

My mention of LegalZoom on Twitter actually inspired Alexis to write this article titled “Is LegalZoom a Good Idea? Do the Legal Documents Work?” in which she outlines the issues people might have when relying strictly on these documents - her main advice is to make sure to have them reviewed by a family lawyer if you do decide to go ahead with LegalZoom.

What really struck me about Alexis’ work is her advice to parents about planning for the future of their children in the event of a tragedy. Her book “Wear Clean Underwear! A Fast, Fun, Friendly - and Essential - Guide to Legal Planning for Busy Parents” includes some majorly eye-opening scenarios for parents, all set in a “choose your own adventure” type of format, where you choose your path and see what the outcome would be like. Of course, you should read all the possible outcomes for each scenario, but the stories are set in a very realistic way and really showed me how valuable it is to fully plan for my children. The legal documents we prepared through LegalZoom simply aren’t enough.

The other main thing that I took away from Alexis is that we need a Kids Protection Plan in which we lay out much more than just a guardian for our children. We need to think through many more scenarios and be much more aware of the legal issues that are part of custody arrangements and in the event of an emergency if our kids are at home with a sitter and the sitter doesn’t know whom to contact.

For all parents, I’d highly suggest reading “Wear Clean Underwear” and checking out the Kids Protection Plan site where you can create free legal documents for your family. I’m not at all qualified to offer any of the advice that Alexis is able to, so rather than me passing it on, it would be much more beneficial to check out Alexis’ materials. You’ll have a chance to win the book here, but if you’re not one of the lucky winners, you should know that when you purchase the book through the official site, you receive over $3,000 in bonus materials!

Win a Copy!

All you need to do to be entered for a chance to win one of the two copies available for our readers is leave a comment on this post - I’d love to hear whether or not you’ve created legal documents for your family, but this information isn’t required. You just need to leave a comment - that’s it!

The contest will close on August 11th and the winners will be notified by email shortly after.

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!

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.

Kate Olson is a mother of 2 toddlers living 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 for a chance to win a box of the Don’t Bite Me! bug repellent patches…………….

The name of this product cracks me up - Don’t Bite Me! The product itself really isn’t all that funny, but it is pretty innovative and useful. I received an email about this product right after visiting the doctor with my 16-month-old son and being told that the answer to my son’s horrible bug bites was to, “not let him get stung so much.” Ah, useful information from the M.D., no? This incredibly insightful answer led to my relief when I was approached about reviewing the Don’t Bite Me! bug repellent patch.

The Don’t Bite Me! patch is DEET Free and claims to protect against mosquitoes, gnats, no seeums, ticks, chiggers and sand fleas. The inclusion of ticks on that list was another reason for my interest - my same much-bitten son recently had a deer tick embedded in his back, which was cause for a LOT of worry on my part because of the risk of Lyme Disease in deer ticks.

The Don’t Bite Me! website gives this additional information about the product:

The active ingredient, Vitamin B1 is the NATURAL repellent that keeps the bugs away. The Vitamin B1 is absorbed into the bloodstream through a natural trans dermal patch that is applied directly to your skin.

When applied two hours before going outdoors, the Don’t Bite Me! Patch is effective for up to 36 hours! The patch is DEET FREE, waterproof and safe for use on children. No messy sprays, lotions or towelettes — just apply directly to your skin, and leave on for the desired time of coverage.

How’d It Work?

My husband was actually the first one in our family to try the patch after being attacked by gnats. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to apply the patch 2 hours in advance, so may not have experienced full results. He said the patch was unnoticeable and was easy to apply. By the way, when you think of the patch, think of a clear square sticker. It’s almost invisible once it’s applied to the skin.

I put a patch on my son the next day and it seemed to do a decent job of keeping the bugs off. He didn’t mind having it on and we left it on for most of the day. The only issue I had was removing the patch - it stuck SO well that I had to do a bit of yanking to take it off. It’s like a band-aid in that it’s best to remove it VERY quickly. I plan to use these patches a lot more in the future, but just have to remember to apply them in advance of our outside time.

You can buy this product at many different retailers and can also order from the company’s website.

Win Some!

We have 3 boxes of the Don’t Bite Me! patch for our readers - yay for you! What’s the game this time? Super, super simple - all you need to do is comment on this post. That’s it. An intelligible response would be splendid, but I guess a simple, “yo, what’s up” would work too. Even better would be sharing your favorite trick for keeping the bugs off your family - dogs too. I swear my dog was put on this earth to collect ticks, it’s disgusting!

The contest will end June 25th.

Have at it - this should be an easy win!

We have winners from the Weiman cleaning products contest - congratulations to Rachelle, Wendy, and Kelby!

They each won an assortment of cleaning products - something we ALL need, right? Here are the tips that readers shared with us in the contest:

Wendy

ok so i am the messiest person in the world. but i do have a few things i do…i do manage to get the bed semi-made by putting the baby up by the pillows and getting her involved in making the bed–covering her with the blankets etc. i am in an apartment building so to keep the apt. free of junk mail, i sort the mail in the mail room, throw away what i don’t want and prevent some of that clutter from coming up into my space. and third, i invite my mom to come in and babysit frequently–nothing like mom’s iminent to instigate a toilet cleaning!

Rachelle

Okay. You all are probably going to laugh, but I love cleaning! And I leave cleaning products. I salivate at the lastest technologies in cleaning products. My first tip, incorporate small cleaning tasks into your normal routine. For example, while the kids are in the tub (our girls are 3 yr. and 20 mths.), I wipe down the sink and use one of those toilet wands to clean the toilet. Second, get the kids involved. Toddlers love to play “grown-up” and help Mommy. I ask my two girls to help clean the table by bringing in their dirty dishes to the sink. Our youngest, even helps close the door to the dishwasher. Third, Have your children help you sort through junk mail. Our kids love to open mail and again pretend to be “grown-up.” They open junk mail and then place in our recycling bin, which frees up time for me to sort through the bills.

Kelby

One big tip: hubbie and I came up with this very involved plan for who does what, and now he does all laundry and I do all dishes, for instance. We were getting buried in cleaning with three kids (including twins who were babies when we came up with it).
We also get the kids involved as much as possible.
We also pick core chores, like laundry and dishes, and do them every single day (sometimes a couple times), even if it’s only five minutes to do it haphazardly, to keep on top of them.

Ellen

I look at the house. I see that it is messy. I remember the wonderful feeling that I get when it has been put to rights, like I have ordered the world, my world somehow. It’s very basic psychology, but it’s true: I feel better when it’s done. Just fling yourself at the nearest thing, holding on to the mental image of how cute your house is. Or, fling yourself outside and have your fun. That’s what you and all your loved ones will remember most of life.

(Full Disclosure: I am the Daughter of Diane)

I’m not a mother, at the moment, but I am a newlywed with a student husband and my first-ever-and-still-alive tomato plant.

We both work: him, part time and at school, me at my day job, and also at spending as much time as I can pursuing that which I find wonderful. Not to mention, being a bridesmaid five times over- me my friends have reached that threashold all near-simultaneously. So in a typical week, and especially the weekend, the last thing I- or Husband- want is to feel chained to drudgery.

I enjoy cleaning, for the most part- except mopping, bleh. (Our apartment is a part of a very old house that has seen many, many incarnations. Behind the grill work you can see some of the different fads the house has undergone- delicate flower wallpaper, crazy disco whorls, and between them layers of paint. The rugs are a shag that has matted into a whole new creature. Mopping is especially disheartening as the linoleum has taken on it’s own special color that always looks a little dingy. Nonetheless, it’s a cheerful big sunny place with lots of colors and patterns and hidden treasure and all our weird stuff snug and cozy all around.)

It’s seeing the sun shining outside while the crumbs on the counter are staring you down that makes it feel like a chore. It’s wanting to read a book but having the dishes screaming at you telepathically through the walls. It’s anticipating a really fun night- with family and/or friends- but getting all snarled up in the mechanics of vaccuming under the couch.

My tips are:

Start with the ‘chore’ you like best. My go-to is dishes, and I just love doing the laundrey. ( I guess for me there’s just something about water and soap.) Once I see that this is done, doing more cleaning doesnt seem like such a bad deal.

Have a routine. Every morning I brew coffee, open the curtains, put away things in their place. No washing/dustin/mopping, just setting things to rights. When more thorough cleaning is needed, you have a head start.

My third tip is really a rag bag: have a room you never stress about, one that can just go it’s merry way. Ours is our bedroom. We keep the door to it closed. End of story. We like it when it’s clean but that mysteriously doesn’t last more then a day or two. Also, play music while you clean. Also, if you possibly can, take a tip from the Buddhist way of thinking- see Thich Nhat Hahn’s little books, where one chapter may be a paragraph about being in the moment, enjoying your tasks, to smile when you hear a ringing phone as though it were a bell tinkling. His words are so simple, and the adjustment may seem small, but the change in perpective can make any day that much merrier. Also, run outside, grab family or go yourself, and forget about all that. Honestly. Unless there are creatures bigger then cats (that aren’t cats) or a bomb or something like that, really, what harm will there be to having a messy house??

Thanks to Rachelle, Wendy, Kelby, and Ellen for entering! Check out our latest contest to win a case of Primo bottled water - 10 winners this time and it’s SO easy to win!