For today’s blog post, I thought I would try something new. I want to show you how you can use AboutOne to help you stay on top of all the important information that comes home from school and also save all those great assignments that your kids bring home from school.
Not only will this let you reduce the amount of paper stored around your house, but it will also let you share your kids artwork with your friends and family from anywhere.
AboutOne makes it easy to save special memories and milestones for your family. But besides giving you a simple, secure place to store those memories, we also make it simple to share with your friends and family without needing to spend hours writing and formatting.
This week we have released some upgrades to our Family newsletter. Besides giving the newsletter a fresh look, we have also added the ability to filter your monthly news. This means you can send a newsletter to your friends and family with everything that has happened this for your household.
You can use the “add this to my newsletter” feature in the family, education , and possessions area of the application, so you can use your newsletter to brag on everything from your kids school field trips and awards to that new fence you built over Labor Day weekend.
1. Add a few memories this month as they happen. Or for those of you who never leave home without your iPhone or Android, you can snap a photo and email it to your inbox and edit the details later.
2. Add this memory to your newsletter by checking the newsletter box.
3. Then just select which month you would like to view.
4. Click email or print. Add a few email addresses and thats it! One perfectly formatted newsletter with all the month’s events.
I have four children and two of them have serious food allergies. Food allergies are not always obvious so I thought I would share how we discovered my boys allergies.
After my eldest son was past one years old, (and no longer drinking formula) he cried and vomited on an irregular, but worrying basis.
My mom kept telling me there was something wrong (always listen to your mom) ; however, when I took my son to my pediatrician she told me it was normal. So I carried on feeding him foods and menus recommended in all the child-care books including a drink of organic milk at bedtime and foods with egg during meal times. The irregular vomiting and crying did not stop until we moved and a new neighbor came to visit. She saw the vomiting and said, “Oh your son is allergic to milk or some other food, see Dr. Wodell, a child allergist.”
Dr. Wodell diagnosed my son with allergies to milk, chicken, eggs and nuts! Now I manage our household menus carefully and my son(s) very rarely have a reaction to the foods they are allergic to.
Lessons learned – If you feel like your child has something wrong but are told that this is not the case; seek a second opinion. As a new mom I was afraid to do this and as a result continued to feed my son foods he was allergic to for much longer than I should have. I still feel guilty about that today (6 years later!).
Luckily his allergies were not life threatening, but you may not be as lucky as me. (Note: I changed my pediatrician!)
Every time I begin assembling my clothes and other dorm room paraphernalia, it seems like things have expanded drastically. How can I possibly have so many things, and how on Earth will I ever squeeze this into my room, the size of a walk-in closet?!
Part of my problem is that I go to school where the winters are terribly cold, so in addition to bringing summer clothing, which I will wear for approximately the first 2.5 weeks of school, I also have to bring a heavy winter coat, snow boots, hats, mittens, scarves, a bulky (but cozy) comforter, and a large supply of hot chocolate mix. With the addition of sheets, towels, a few small items of furniture, lamps, carpet, shoes, hangers, laundry supplies, pillows, an under-bed storage box, school supplies, and a few posters to decorate the white cinder block walls, things can get overwhelming quickly. The tidy list in my head has evolved into a mountain in the middle of my bedroom, making the trek from door to bed a perilous one.
Seeing the mountain in front of me, it’s easy to forget little things, like shampoo, soap, medications, sunglasses, phone charger, iPod, and camera. To make sure that I’ve got everything, I usually start a list a week or two before departure, jotting down the little items that I want to make sure I remember in all the commotion. This works well for me because I am able to keep track of the big items in my mind and writing lists helps me to remember the small things easily forgotten. If you are highly organized, like my roommate, you can make a spreadsheet of everything you could possibly bring. Here’s a sample packing list.
Make sure you check with your school before you leave about what items are allowed in rooms. You could save some serious room in your car by realizing that microwaves are not allowed if you check first! Other common items that are sometimes prohibited in dorm rooms are hot plates, Christmas lights, guns (who would have thought?!), and portable grills.
Once I’m at school, one of the first things I do is organize my clothing. I put the clothes that I’ll be wearing in more accessible places and the clothes that are out of season farther back in a drawer or stuffed in my storage box. If you have the option of putting boxes and suitcases in storage during the year, that is also a great option for storing things that you might not currently need. Additionally, if you go home for a break that’s in the middle of seasons, you can use that trip to exchange clothing. I also use trips home in the middle of the semester to stock up on various items like mouthwash, detergent, and soap, things I don’t necessarily want taking up coveted shelf space. After clothes are put away, it’s usually easy to find a spot for everything else.
To make the trip home at the end of the year and the trip back to campus for the next year less of a hassle, storing things on campus (or with a helpful and strategically located friend) for the summer works wonderfully. In addition to storing cumbersome items like a roll of carpet or a futon, you might have the option of storing boxes. This usually costs a small price, but is worth it if it helps reduce the stress from seeing that mountain form in the middle of your room over the summer.
We had another round of new features released last night. If you haven’t logged into the application recently you are in for some great surprises.
You can now view your memories and milestones in either list or scrapbook view, and we have also added search and sorting capabilities. You can also see your family memories together on the new family bulletin board.
Yeah, we know that sometimes you just want to push the buttons and look around by yourself. We now have a 15-free trial plan available. Give it a try and let us know what you think. There’s no credit card required!
If you still want to know more, I would be happy to arrange a 20 minute demo or answer any lingering questions.
We’ve added several new features to the dashboard to make it faster for you to add your information and see recent activity in your account. You can now see the latest updates in your AboutOne.com account, quickly jump to the details for any family member using our quick links, see all the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries from your contacts, and find great tips and savings.
Check out our short video.
So what is a busy mom to do on an 8 hour car journey with 6 children who are all quiet watching movie? (That’s me right now.) Work on my baby book and vacation scrap book – that’s what!
I just spent the last 20 minutes cleaning up my iPhone photos. It took me just seconds to review my photos, add any comments and send them to my AboutOne inbox (email inbox@aboutone.com) and voila–my family scrapbooks are ready. The next time I am on my laptop my family newsletter will be automatically generated to share my vacation memories securely with my family and friends. It was great use if an otherwise idle 20 minutes.
Got to go– my turn to drive!
One thing that I learned from growing up with a special needs sister is that caring for someone else means that you must always put their needs ahead of yours. This lesson was reinforced to me when I had children of my own. Thankfully both of my children are healthy, but that does not mean that they did not demand my undivided attention. Anyone who has children or cares for someone else will have no problem relating and also will attest to the fact that if you do not care for yourself you will burn out. Burnout comes in various shapes and sizes just like people do, but we all know what it feels like.
Here are a few simple things that I do to ensure that I am the best caretaker possible:
Just like any other full time job, you need to be dedicated to the people you are caring for. The easiest way to get distracted and not give someone your full attention is to have your own needs continue to interrupt your time with the person you are caring for. More times than not, this will result in frustration from the person you are caring for and will make your time together difficult. It also leads to personal guilt because that little voice inside of us knows that we are not focusing where we should be.
This is so important! We all would like to believe that we can put someone else’s needs ahead of our own whenever it is needed, but that is not realistic. We all need time to nurture our own soul. Caring for yourself is just as important as caring for others because you need to be physically and mentally healthy to care for someone else. Time away is also a great thing for the person you are caring for because it gives them the ability to make new relationships and have different experiences. I know the next thing you are going to say. “Well, someone else cannot care for little Jimmy like I would… what if something happens?” You are right. No two people will care for someone else in the same way. But, this is ok!
You need to build a caretaker network of family, friends, non-profit organizations, paid caretakers, etc. The way you can ensure they get the best care possible is to organize their needs into an easy to understand format. www.AboutOne.com has a great solution to help with this. The Health aspect in AboutOne will walk you through an easy to use wizard that collects all medical and caretaking information and then provides a report that you can share with your caretaking network (either in an electronic or paper-based format). Whenever needs change, you can update the caretaker information in a few clicks and redistribute to your network. The guess work is gone. Wondering if you forgot to tell someone about a new need is gone. All information is in one place and available 24X7.
Please tell me your caretaking tips! I would love to hear from you 
Squash blossoms
As most of you who follow my twitter feed will learn sooner or later, in addition to my geeky interests that make me love my job at AboutOne, I also have a passion for gardening. Not only is it a great way to reconnect with nature after a long day in front of the computer, but it’s also such a great way to make your family grocery budget stretch during the summer months and spend some great time with your family.
It’s that time of year here in Utah where the late summer local gardens are cranking out tomatoes, cucumbers, corn, and squash. While I love this harvest time of year, I also know that in the next few weeks before the kids are back in school and the chill of fall is in the air, my joy over seeing another bright yellow zucchini blossom will turn into something more akin to panic as my kids spot another yellow or green striped baseball bat-sized squash that somehow grew over night. I’ve watched more than a few neighbors graciously leave their surplus harvest with neighbors or in baskets on the side of the road with a “Free” sign.
So thought I would share a few of my favorite recipes that are great for the days when you just can’t image what to do with MORE SQUASH. These are two of my favorites:
If you are anything like me, the fact that August is here and I am getting ready to send my daughter back to college seems totally surreal. Where does the time go? I sure wish I knew! Hope you enjoy some of my nontraditional “get your kids ready for college” tips.
