Dear Children,

With summer fast approaching we are all ready for a little relaxation - that includes ME.

I love having you all to myself during the summer months but this summer, I am not signing up for the four C’s - chauffeur, cook, cleaning lady, and cruise director.

Please understand that if we all pitch in, summer will be a lot more fun.

Don’t complain if I don’t allow all four of you to have friends over all day, every day. I know - we may not be busy, but my energy is limited and so is my patience.
Don’t sulk if I don’t drive you everywhere you want to go, whenever you want to go. Same reason.

Enjoy this time with your siblings and, yes, your mother. You don’t realize how fleeting this carefree time together is.

And, above all, remember that a happy mommy is the key to the best summer ever!

Love,
Mom

This “Dear Children” post was written as part of the MamaBlogga Group Writing Project.

Apple, Inc. is offering free summer learning sessions (Apple Camp) for kids aged 8 to 12 at Apple stores around the country. My kids are technology and computer buffs and they jumped at the chance to spend a morning or two learning about things they can do with an Apple computer.

The four topics being offered are podcasting, iPhoto and iWeb, Music (including iTunes and GarageBand), and iMovie. You need to register online and apparently the space fills up quickly. The sessions are 2.5 hours and a parent is required to stay on premises during that time (this is a great Apple gadget shopping /wish list building opportunity!)

As the summer vacation fast approaches, I realize that there are large blocks of time during which we will have nothing to do. I know that is what summer is all about, but there is a fine line between relaxation and boredom. So, it is nice to find a few things to add variety to a lazy week.

It seems that I am not alone in running “Camp Mommy” this summer. Sherri at The Rebel Housewife is running a “Camp Mommy” of her own and she offers some links on finding some Free Summer Movies for kids.

If you have any suggestions for summer boredom busters, please leave a comment!

Is your web site Google friendly? How do you know?

Everyone with a web site wants to be listed in search engines such as Google - search engines can bring you a lot of new traffic and help people to find you. But if someone does a search for your site or a topic that you have written about your site needs to be on the first few pages of search results. If your site is buried on page 1026, no one is going to find you.

So what can you do to increase your “page rank”? Well, a whole industry - called Search Engine Optimization - has been built around that question, and I’m not going to get into that here. But in order to optimize your site it is helpful to know how Google sees your site.

Enter Google Webmaster Tools. They are free! And it’s relatively easy to sign up. Basically, these tools are a package that provide you with stats and error info about your web site and allow you to submit a sitemap to Google - which ensures that Google will crawl all the pages on your website.

First and foremost, in order to use Google Webmaster Tools you must have a Google account. Luckily, that is free too. Just go to www.google.com/mail and sign up.

Once your account is set up go to www.google.com/webmasters/. This will bring you to Google Webmaster Central. Check to see if your site is currently indexed by Google (just do a Google search for site: your website URL). If it is not currently indexed then go to www.google.com/addurl.html and submit your site.

You are almost there. In order to view stats and errors about your site using these tools you must first verify your site. Google wants to make sure that you are the owner of the site and not some other snooping busybody. To do this you must add a META tag to your site’s home page or upload an html file. Google walks you through it, so it is not too difficult.

OK, now that you are all set up and verifed, you can access your stats and errors and submit a sitemap if you so wish. Google does a good job of explaining their webmaster tools via their help section. I have provided some links to informative explanations.

Dashboard Page
When you first access the webmaster tools you will be on your dashboard page. This lists all your sites, gives you link to add a sitemap, and shows you whether the site is verified. When you click on any one of your sites you will be taken to your summary page for that site.

Summary Page
This page tells you when Googlebot last crawled your site and whether pages from your site are inclded in Google’s index. There are four horizontal tabs to choose from (I know, there are only three in the picture, apparently the links tab has been after this screenshot was taken) - Diagnostic (which is where you currently are), Statistics, Links, and Sitemaps.

Diagnostic Tab
On the diagnostic tab you are given a vertical menu which includes choices for crawl errors, tools that include robots.txt analysis, managing site verification, preferred domain, enhanced image search, and URL removals.

Statistics Tab
This page gives you your crawl stats (including the PageRank of your pages in Google based on a high, medium, and low distribution). You also find your query stats here - this tells what search terms people have used to find you and what position within the search that your page was located. Page analysis and index stats are also included here.

Links Tab
The Links tab provides you with a list of external links - pages within your web site that contain links to other web sites, and a list of internal links - pages within your website that link to other pages within your website.

Sitemaps Tab
Here you can submit a sitemap and see information about your submitted sitemaps. This tool is probably very useful to large sites that have many pages. Google even has a tool called Google Sitemap Generator which will create a sitemap for your URL. There are also third party programs that will help you to create a sitemap.

Google Webmaster Tools FAQ are also very helpful.

This post was written as part of the eMoms at Home To Do Wish List Group Research Project. Thank you Wendy, I look forward to reading all the submissions and crossing a few items off my to do list as well!

Today was an eye-opener for me. I realized that my children are heavily dependent on - me. Of course I am a central figure in their life - I knew that. But they seem to need me at a level that I just cannot sustain.

Let me explain. My husband took a vacation day today, so he was home. With beautiful weather outside, I put my gardening hat on and went a little crazy. My daughter and I visited the local gardening store and picked up far too many flats of annuals - more than mommily possible to plant in one day.

Sure enough, the evening arrived too soon. I took a break from planting to drive the boys to their practices and run a few errands. Upon my return, my yard was just as I left it - strewn with flats of plants and gardening tools. I told my husband that I needed to finish up and would be in shortly, “why don’t you take charge of dinner and serve a wonderfully healthy meal of hot dogs?”

“Sure ” was the reply.

From that point on, every two minutes - I kid you not - every child including my husband called outside to me - EVERY 2 MINUTES. “mom, I need this”, “mom, help me with that”, “mom, dad said I can’t do whatever” and on and on. The final straw came when one of my older children came outside and wanted me to toast his hot dog bun because no one else could do it the same as me.

Now, I know it is nice to be loved and needed but this is ridiculous. And - NO - I didn’t toast it for him! But I realize that my children (and my husband) need to become more self-sufficient. Oh sure, they would manage just fine without me, but if I am there - I am like a crutch that they use to lean on.

I really don’t know what the answer is but I know that I will “burn out” being everybody’s everything.

It must be spring! I am on a cleaning and organizing binge. But there is too much for me to do in just one day or even one weekend for that matter.

I have developed a two list method to tackle spring cleaning that is working well for me.

I have my standard “to do” list which I prepare daily. And now I have my “to do when I have time” list which is ongoing.

Every time I come across something that needs fixing, organizing, cleaning, or some other sort of attention - it goes on list number 2. If there is a particular drawer or closet that needs a rehaul, it goes on the list. Recently, a few of the throw pillows in our family room burst at the seams (apparently the boys had a few too many pillow fights!) Mending went on the to do when I have time list.

If I don’t make a list of these little “special projects” then I will promptly forget.

But the key to this system lies in moving one special project from list number 2 to list number 1 on a regular basis (daily, weekly, whatever works for you). In this situation a third list - called “Honey Do” - can also be very useful!

If you have any spring cleaning tips that work, please comment!