CrazyBusy Mama! (Dot Calm)

Almost two weeks ago, my husband and I were at a certain store that sells these neat little things called iPhones. You’ve probably heard of them. They were all I had eyes for, though this store also sells other brands of cell phones, mini notebook computers, and accessories. We were in there to renew our service and to pick out new phones for ourselves and our three teens, since we were all “needing” them. My husband – great guy that he is – bought me a new iPhone 3GS as an early anniversary gift (it helped that we got a good price). He got a new phone, too – a “rugged,” man-type phone that could be dropped and keep on working like nothing happened.

Along with our new plan, we also got unlimited texting. At times I like it because it’s an easy way to reach my kids. At other times, I’m not so sure…like when one of my kids texts me from a room away instead coming to find me. We’ll work on that.

After a few years of having a cell phone that would ring only when it wanted to and didn’t like to make outgoing calls, it was time for a new one. Seriously – when you’re at one end of a grocery store, your child is in the electronics section, and you want to leave, you need to be able to reach your child. What you don’t need is to hear a “doob-la-do-doop” and see the words “CALL FAILED…RETRY” on your cruddy little screen. I can’t tell you how many times I had to resist the urge to fling that phone as far as I could after receiving that message. Even Brett Favre couldn’t have thrown it farther than me. If I had.

Back to my new baby, my iPhone. I’ve been having a great deal of fun with it, like adding new apps, figuring out my calendar, downloading podcasts, looking up websites…and on and on. I’m sure there’s got to be a healthy recipe app out there somewhere. If there is, I’ll find it! How handy would that be? I could look up a certain recipe while at the grocery store just to make sure I’d gotten all the ingredients. And I promise I wouldn’t even check Facebook while I’m there (and if you believe that…).

Speaking of apps, if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time, you’ll know I’m a big ExerciseTV fan. You might be able to imagine, then, how happy I was a couple nights ago when I found an ExerciseTV app! It’s not free, but all the mini workout videos that come with it are worth the $1.99. Read all about it in my post on the ExerciseTV blog. (Which, by the way, is not a paid endorsement.) Try it out!

Got an iPhone? You Might Like These:

iPhone For Dummies: Includes iPhone 3GS, by Edward C. Baig “A full-color guide to the iPhone, including the new iPhone 3G S. “With its new 3G S model, the iPhone is definitely the must-have mobile device. This fully updated guide covers all the cool features of the fastest iPhone ever, including the Spotlight search feature, voice control, and video camera capability. “iPhone For Dummies, 3rd Edition also covers the basics of using the multitouch interface, setting up iTunes, browsing the Internet, sending and receiving e-mail, and more.” (Amazon)

Best Iphone Apps: The Guide for Discriminating Downloaders, by Josh Clark “This catalog of iPhone gems is an authoritative guide to the best, most useful, and most entertaining iPhone apps. Full of colorful and helpful illustrations, Best iPhone Apps gives you the lowdown on each app, with brief tips on how to use it.” (Amazon)

©2009 Sally Dinius
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I’m so excited to make the official announcement…right here on CrazyBusy Mama…that I am now also a blogger over at ExerciseTV! I’ve been doing the ExerciseTV workouts with my daughter, Erica, for a while now and we’ve seen such a change in our bodies and lives. It’s the coolest thing to be able to share that journey with the world! Erica will also be giving her take on our continued quest for fitness, and we’ll be sharing our updates as we train for next year’s Race for the Cure in our area.

Visit us here: CrazyBusy Mama’s Get Fit Blog

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In other cool news, CrazyBusy Mama now has a Facebook fan page! Become a fan by clicking here to get lots of useful news, fun updates and great freebies. If it’s something that will encourage you in your own quest to be healthy and fit, I’ll post it!

ExerciseTV is giving away an iPod Touch every other day from August 13 – 18. One’s been awarded already, but there are still two up for grabs! All you have to do is upload the Jillian Slimdown Widget wherever you can (you’ll see it here on the right side of my blog), then tweet about it on Twitter every time (be sure to include the location of the widget, and the #ExerciseTV hashtag).

Go to ExerciseTV.tv for complete rules and prize details.

Get posting!

I’m still on my freebie and deals kick this weekend, and I want to tell you about something cool you’ll find when you visit ExerciseTV.

If you know me, or have been reading this blog for a while, you know I’m a huge ExerciseTV fan. My daughter and I do our favorite workouts together as often as our schedule allows (at least a few times a week), and separately when we can’t find the time to work out together. We typically use the workouts on the ExerciseTV channel on Comcast OnDemand, but many of the same workouts can also be found on the website.

Truth be told, it’s been a few days since I’ve been able to do my workouts. I’ve had a doozy of a migraine since Friday, but I think it’s realizing it’s no longer welcome and is beginning to leave. I can’t wait until I can work out again tomorrow. I have been stretching, though, and working out a little with light weights. I can’t stand doing nothing. And that’s a good point…no matter what your reason is right now for not working out, you can always do something. A friend of mine with multiple sclerosis uses a hula hoop (which is going to be great for strengthening her core and helping with her balance difficulties).

Back to the cool thing you’ll find at ExerciseTV.tv:  free workout videos (and some very inexpensive ones). Some are just a few minutes long, but some are longer, like 10-15 minutes (those typically are not free, but are very affordable). I love that — string several 10 minute workouts together and you’ve taken care of working your whole body in just 30-40 minutes. (We all have an extra 30-40 minutes a day. Get off of Facebook, etc., and you’ll see how many half hours you find. ).

Here are the links to some of those free (or cheap) videos for you to download:

Start Walking With Leslie Sansone FREE Mini Workouts–Video Download. 15 mini-workouts. I love walking with Leslie. I’ve had weak hips and knees since birth, but now they’re really strong for the first time in my life.

Amy Dixon 10-minute Workouts. Just $1.99 to $2.99 each. I credit Amy with helping me to get my abs in shape. Fun workouts!

Pink Ribbon Workouts Free Mini Workouts with Holly Perkins. “Pink Ribbon,” of course, represents the Susan G. Komen Foundation and the Race for the Cure. Working out with Holly’s Pink Ribbon workouts on Comcast is what inspired me to start training for next year’s Race for the Cure in Seattle (no date yet, but I’m assuming there will be one).

Jillian Michaels’ Free Mini Workouts – 14 videos. Yep, that Jillian Michaels, from TV’s The Biggest Loser. Get ready to bust your fanny. Really.

Have fun with these! Feel free to tool around the ExerciseTV site for more free mini-workouts. These are great to download and take with you on vacation. (Yes, fall’s coming, but we still have a month of summer before school starts!)

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Normally, I would call these “hot deals,” but because we’re in the middle of a heat wave here in Seattle (we broke 100 yesterday), I’m calling them “cool.” We need anything cool we can get right now.

I’m always on the lookout for new ways to save money, both as a mom and professionally. I’ve come across a few that I want to pass on to you. We’re pretty much talking freebies here. Check these out and get your fingers clickin’!

WEBSITE MAGAZINE. First of all, because I still can’t believe it, I’ll tell you how much this magazine costs: NOTHING. It’s absolutely free…no strings. Website Magazine is an extremely well-done, professional publication. Many times free magazines are mostly filled with ads, and while this mag does have ads, they’re not overdone and the content is incredible. If you’re working online, you need this magazine. You may be a website designer or developer, a graphic designer, a website owner, a blogger, an internet marketer, or all of the above — I don’t care: Hurry and get this free magazine before they change their minds and start charging for it!

CARBONITE. Picture this: Your digital pictures…gone. Important downloads…gone. Work you’d saved on your computer…gone. Your computer has crashed or been stolen and everything on it is gone forever.

Now picture this: Your computer crashes or is stolen. Pictures, emails, downloads, files…all gone. You’re upset…furious, even…but you know that as soon as you get your computer repaired or replaced you’ll get it all back. How? You’ve got Carbonite.

Carbonite is an offline back-up service that begins saving and protecting your vital information as soon as you add it to your hard drive. I have Carbonite on my laptop (as a web designer/developer, writer, and camera-happy mom, I wouldn’t dare be caught without it), and you should, too. Period.

Get your free trial and see how easily Carbonite will protect what’s important to you. I know I sound like a commercial (perhaps I’m in the wrong line of work?), but I really do love this service!

TWEETLATER. What can I say about TweetLater? I love TweetLater. TweetLater has revolutionized the way I tweet to my Twitter followers. With TweetLater I can tweet to my heart’s content without tworking off my Twitter tweeps. (Okay, I’ll stop.)

What are you trying to promote? A blog? An online business? A care blog about a seriously ill loved one? Try TweetLater. You can schedule your Twitter updates (or “tweets”) to appear exactly when you want them to. You can also save your tweets to use again and again and schedule those, too.

You do know what this means, don’t you? It means you can tweet to your hearts content (without being on Twitter all day) and still have a life! Who wouldn’t love that?

That’s it for today! More cool deals will be passed on to you as soon as I find them.

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Women's Wildfire Rally 2009

Have you ever thought about working from home? Perhaps you’ve wanted to quit your day job and stay home with the kids, or maybe you’re already an at-home mom but want to bring in some extra money. I want to tell you about a (FREE) teleseminar I just signed up for. I’m really hoping you’ll join me.

It’s called the Women’s Wildfire Rally 2009 and runs for five nights: August 7-12. Beginning at 8 PM Central on each of those evenings, Carrie Wilkerson (a.k.a. “The Barefoot Executive”) will be interviewing a minimum of four women work-at-homers. Each interview will be around 15 minutes long and will be packed with incredible info and expertise you won’t want to miss.

What I really like about the Women’s Wildfire Rally is, first of all, that the calls are complimentary. You don’t need to purchase a package of any sort to listen to the calls at the time they’re scheduled for. If you want the MP3′s so you can listen later (and again and again, which can really be helpful), you’ll be asked to pay $27 before the rally (and I’m pretty sure you get some other goody or goodies along with the MP3′s), but like I said, this is not required if you just want to listen to the calls at their scheduled times.

These 15-minute interviews are jam-packed with useful info that will be beneficial to any work-at-home mom. To begin with, there are no long, flowery introductions, and  you’re not being suckered into listening to a free call just to buy something. Also, Carrie didn’t allow any time for audience Q&A, so you don’t have to waste your time listening to other people’s questions.

You’re going to enjoy this rally! No one interviews QUITE like Carrie does. She’s high-energy, very charismatic, and comes across like the next-door neighbor you wish you had. These are speed interviews — you’ll want to have your notepad and pen at the ready before they start!

Why is this rally just what you and I need? Because:

We’re BUSY!
We’re tired of what doesn’t work.
We don’t want to be ‘sold to’ from every speaker we listen to.
ENOUGH is ENOUGH and we are tired of things not changing in our lives and businesses.

You will have to SEE the lineup of speakers to believe it. Click here to go see the schedule and All-Star Guest List!

Take a look at this incredible video from Carrie (seriously, straight from her heart). In the video, she tells you — in a nutshell — that if you are ready for your business, your finances, and your life to change, then YOU have to stand up against mediocrity. You have to shout out that ENOUGH is enough!

Please join me, friends, at the Women’s Wildfire Rally 2009. It’s for women willing to learn from leaders who are not afraid of changing their income, their lifestyle, their future and their WORLD!

Are you one of these women?

Are you ready to RALLY?

You can afford this. Like I said, there is ZERO COST — in other words, FREE.

You can get all the details here and I urge you to check it out NOW. Carrie always throws a great ‘party’ and her energy and experience combined with that of the guests she’s featuring is going to make this a fun event!

Go check it out and register at http://crazybusymama.com/WildfireRally.html

What have you got to lose?

Everyone likes free things, right? In today’s post, I’m listing some really cool freebies just for you, fellow crazybusy mama! Read on and check out whatever interests you.

100% Free:

Teen Driver Handbook for Parents
MetLife has written a guide for parents of teen drivers that they’re offering for free on their website. It’s been reviewed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Commission. Check it out and send for yours — I just did.

Free Business Cards
If you have a home business, you need business cards (and labels, and maybe letterhead, etc.). Heard of Vista Print? You know — the people who are always offering the free business cards? They’re completely legitimate and the cards are good quality. Just follow the link above, then click on “Free Products” under the Business or Home and Family categories. Also, right now you can save up to 90% on other items and get FREE shipping.

Coldplay Thanks You
Are you a fan of Coldplay? Perhaps your kids are? As a thank you to all their fans, Coldplay is allowing you to download their album, “Left Right Left Right Left” for free. That’s nine songs for the taking, including their famous “Viva La Vida.” Don’t miss out on this one!

Life Is(n’t Always) a Highway
Looks like Jeep is giving away a free digital subscription to Off-Road Adventures Magazine to whoever registers for it. If you’ve got a guy who thinks driving as far off the beaten path as possible is where it’s at, or perhaps that’s you —  sign up today.

If You’re Not Stuck on Starbucks…
McDonald’s is giving away free iced or hot 8 oz. (that’s the small size) mochas on Mondays between 7 AM and 7 PM. Promotion ends August 3rd. Valid only at participating McDonald’s restaurants.

And How About a Coupon?

Fall is just around the corner, and that means (among other things) lots of sack lunches! Get a coupon worth $1.50 off Ziploc products by going here. You’ll need to install their coupon printer. I recommend signing up for their “Right at Home” newsletter, too, to receive future coupons and promotions.

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Whether you’re a work at home mom or have just batted the idea around, you’ll really benefit from listening to other WAHMs talk about what they do.

Yesterday, I finally purchased my season pass to the Hot Seminar Series. In this series of eight webinars, various work-at-home moms graciously give us a glimpse into their lives and explain just how they do what they do.

I’ll admit I’m a really bad procrastinator, and was worried — because I’d waited so long — that I’d pretty much missed out on my chance to get a season pass. (The seminar series began in June.) Not so…by purchasing my season pass now, I still gained access to the MP3 audio files of the previous webinars. (If you don’t have an iPod or other MP3 player, you can listen right from your computer once you’ve downloaded the files.)

Being a web designer/developer myself (and learning more every day), the first webinar I was interested in listening to was, naturally, Kelly McCausey’s interview with Lynette Chandler. Lynette is a WordPress tech/designer who also develops WordPress plug-ins. To do what Lynette does means I’ll have to ramp up some of my skills (or outsource to people who do have those skills, which was a great point the ladies brought up), but I was so inspired by both of them (Kelly is also a website designer).

I hope you’ll spend the small amount necessary to get your season pass, too. It’s only $10 (hello…$10!!!), and what’s that? Less than three lattes at Starbucks. It’s a small investment that can put you on the road to earning thousands.

Perhaps you’ll be interested in some of the other topics, like being a virtual assistant (this was last night’s topic, of which the audio is already available), freelance writing and paid blogging, information marketing, selling on eBay (yes, that is still a viable work-at-home option!)…and the list goes on.

Check it out yourself! You probably won’t miss the $10, but if you don’t get your season pass, you’ll be missing out on much, much more. You won’t regret it.

See you there!
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When I was at the doctor with my 13 year-old a couple of weeks ago, he suggested I start her on a daily multi-vitamin. My daughter’s eyebrows went up. I forced a smile. “Okay” is what I heard myself say, but on the inside all I felt was “ugh.”

Vitamins and I go way back. And not in a good way. When I was six, my mother fed my brother and I these strange, round, white-coated vitamins that we had to swallow on a daily basis. I think I tried it once or twice…I was determined to never do it again. Upon my return from a weekend visitation with my dad, my mom told me a “funny” story. It seemed that she and my stepdad had a party while my brother and I were gone, and they had to pull the dining room table apart to insert the leaf. As they did, hundreds of those round white vitamins spilled onto the floor. My vitamins.

Fascinated by new research of what vitamins could do for our bodies (this was the 1970s), my mom wasn’t done with her experimenting. She tried giving us niacin tablets to take. I was seven. I’m gathering I didn’t really need niacin, as every time I was made to take it I felt a painful, prickly burning sensation from the inside out. It hurt so bad I cried. Eventually, she understood that maybe…probably…I shouldn’t take it.

In my teens, she gave me multi-vitamins and B-100 supplements to take. I gagged when I tried. (I’ve never done well trying to take horse pills.) I’m sorry to say I gradually resorted to lying when she asked if I’d taken them.

This may all seem like a form of torture (sure felt like it), but I know my mom meant well and just wanted us to be healthy.

I think having such bad experiences with vitamins myself is why I’ve never forced them on my kids. Nowadays, thankfully, vitamins come in various forms for young and old alike: liquid, chewable, lozenges, and yes, the good old-fashioned (why don’t they learn?) horse pills. If one kind doesn’t work for my kids, I can try another.

To finish my story, I bought a small bottle of multi-vitamins for my daughter. Small bottle=small vitamins, right? Not so. They were huge! She tried to take one and had trouble getting it down. I assured her she didn’t have to finish them and that they’d be going back to the store.

That same day, I bought multi-vitamins for my three year-old. They were gummy bears! When I tried one, I was pleased to learn they didn’t taste like vitamins, and she didn’t seem to mind them either. Why didn’t they have those when I was little?

For my 13 year-old, I will probably try liquid vitamins. They’re a little more expensive, but painless to take when mixed with a glass of juice.

If you’re looking for a good vitamin for your youngins, here are some of my recommendations. (And you can get them by mail-order — that’s a big stress-buster right there!)

Rhino Gummy Bear Vitamins, 190-Count Bottle These are the exact gummy vitamins I bought for my three year-old. They’re definitely tasty…I have to use real self-discipline to not take them myself (be sure to store them up high and out of the reach of your young ones).

Nature’s Plus – Animal Parade – Cherry/Orange/Grape, 180 Chewable TabletsAvailable in cherry, orange, or grape flavors (or all three together), these are ideal for the child who isn’t ready to swallow vitamins but also may not like the gummy bear kind. Highly recommended by many parents. Doesn’t contain yeast, soy, milk, wheat, corn, or artificial colors or preservatives. Score!

Childlife Multi Vitamin & Mineral Liquid 8 oz.
This liquid vitamin supplement is ideal for infants and young children. Liquid vitamins are absorbed faster and more completely than regular vitamins, and are ideal for sensitive tummies. Child Life Vitamin and Mineral Liquid is gluten and dairy free.

Next time: Supplements to help your body fight stress (no horse pills, I promise).

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So, after my less-than-successful intro to running, I’ve decided that I’ll focus on walking for the time being. My legs are getting very strong from my workouts, but not in the right places for running (primarily my ankles).

After doing a little online window shopping, I’ve come up with some fun items that will make my walking (and, eventually, running) workouts a little more enjoyable, not to mention productive:

1. GoFit 10-Pound Walking Vest with Removable Water Bottle Holder

Even Leslie Sansone, creator of the Walk at Home exercise program, recommends using a walking vest. Why? Walking vests are weighted. If you’re carrying extra weight around with you (besides what your body is used to carrying), you’re going to burn more calories than you normally would.  It’s a small investment that will speed up weight loss. Sounds good to me!

2. Omron HJ-112 Digital Pocket Pedometer
If you’re walking without this pedometer, you’re missing out on a great hand-held support system. Not only does it accurately measure your steps, aerobic steps and minutes, and distance traveled, it also measures the amount of calories you’ve burned. And that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? We want to make sure we’re working hard enough to cause our bodies to start burning our stored fat for energy. Comes with a detachable belt holder and security strap, and has easy-to-use push button technology. Great price, too.

3. Sportline Walking Advantage Water Bottle Holder
When I walk, even in my own neighborhood, there are certain things I like to take with me: water, cell phone, house keys, and driver’s license (hey, if the neighbor’s lawn mower tosses a rock and knocks me out, the paramedics will need to know who I am, right?). I’ve found the perfect “fanny pack” just for this purpose. It’s so much more than a fanny pack, though. For one thing, it isn’t ugly. Secondly, it’s made primarily for holding a water bottle. Two side pockets hold other necessities, like my cell phone and keys. Handy, handy! And under $10.

Now get walkin’!
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