Change Is Good: Introducing a Contest!

Photo by Hannah.K

It is fitting that we unveil the new layout of this blog on "Junk Drawer" night, because "change" is the best thing to find in the junk drawer, is it not?

I admit--in the moments between pressing "publish" and waiting for the new layout to take effect--I was nervous. I have spent nearly a year with the old blog format, and I'm a girl who loves my comfort zone second only to my sweat pants. So I was sitting on pins and needles last night during the switch.

Many logical reasons necessitated the change. We now have search capabilities, for instance, and we can "tag" to our heart's content. We've listened to your feedback, and we're putting it to practice! Perhaps most exciting, the team is now notified when comments are left. So responding to your clever replies will not require us to go on an Easter egg hunt to find them.

We plan to do all sorts of fun things with this new blog, so fasten your seat belt!

The only sad part of switching to this layout [insert the very sad music] is that we lost all of the comments we have accumulated since House Honcho's humble beginnings. So we are announcing a contest.

I hold in my hand a gift card for Bed Bath & Beyond worth $20. (I am now setting the card down so that I can type again with two hands.) All you have to do is talk to us!

Here are the rules:

1. Each comment you leave (on any of our 300 posts) will equal a name in the hat.
2. Feel free to leave the comment under a pseudonym (but make sure you remember it in case you win!)
3. We will respond to each and every comment!
4. The deadline for this comment contest is one week from today (Monday, March 7) at noon.
5. We will mail the prize on Tuesday, March 8.

Please. Talk to us. If nothing else, tell us the pins and needles were worth it. You could get a new toaster out of the deal--

Favorite Things: Organize Your Jewels

Project by Jamie Crockett, Photo by Bryan McCay

It's Friday, and I'm here with two of my favorite things.

Jewelry. As Dorcas Lane would say in Lark Rise to Candleford, "It's my one weakness."

Organizational tools. Love 'em. (Who doesn't?!) Also, according to Dorcas, "They're my one weakness."

So imagine my joy when I discovered this idea--mentioned in both ReadyMade AND Country Living.

Read the instructions from ReadyMade here.

Guest Blogger: Dear June: I'm Not Perfect

Photo by aprillynn77

Dear June

I have a good friend who wants me to start cleaning her house. I am nervous this could destroy our relationship because she's perfectionistic and I'm not. Any advice?

Dear Friend,
When it comes to the hiring process, one fundamental task has to be accomplished. The prospective employer looks to see that the employee has the qualities to fit the needs and demands of the job.

And in this situation, it sounds like your friend has bypassed this step on account of her friendship with you. For that reason, I think it would be in the best interest of both parties for you to pass on this opportunity. Thank her for wanting to help you out but remind her that you don't quite meet the qualifications for this particular job. A perfectionist will demand (and deserve) perfectionistic work. And as you've said, that's just not you.

An offer to help her find the perfect person for the job will go a long way to say it isn't anything personal.

From my home to yours

Book of Mom: Organic Wrap-up

Photo by walkingspace

I'm not talking spa treatment here.

Though, I'm not opposed! We're wrapping up our organic series tonight with a list of a few resources to help you make your decisions about choosing organic products.

1. Shop Meijer, Wegmans, or Trader Joes, if convenient. These stores offer a great variety of organic products.

2. Check out Door-to-Door Organics (if you're in Colorado, the Chicago area, the Kansas City area, or Michigan) and Suburban Organics (if you live in Eastern U.S.). Not only do you get to shop from the comfort of your own home, but the organic groceries get delivered right to your door for a reasonable price.

3. Read In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto. Whether you're pro-organic, anti-organic, or somewhere in the middle, this book is a great resource about how to make better food choices.

And that's a wrap!

In Print: When Appearances Collide

Photo by Stacy Michelle

Here is what I read today that gave me pause:

"The housewives admired her thrift, the patients her politeness, the poor her charity. But she was eaten up with desires, with rage, with hate. The rigid folds of her dress covered a tormented heart of which her chaste lips never spoke."

Madame Bovary
Gustave Flaubert
1857

A clean home is only half the equation--

Adopted: Past Tense

http://abc.go.com/shows/supernanny

Monday we discuss "junk drawer" contents, and do I have some junk for you!

Forgive me while I take a short detour down Pet Peeve Lane.

This evening I stumbled across an advertisement for Super Nanny--the show about the one and only Jo Frost who changes lives one family at a time by teaching adults how to parent. Her advertisement for the most current episode reads:

Jo helps a mother of four adopted children maintain control of the house.

Now, I am all about adoption. I really am. I am not ashamed to say that I was adopted or that I am adopting. But it bothers me (read: infuriates me) when people use "adopted" to define the problem, malfunction, or shortcoming of a person or situation. If we are going to define people by the way they enter their family, I suggest the following headlines in upcoming newspapers:

Activist, born via Caesarean section, attacked in his home.

Child, born prematurely, expelled from school.

Lady, born at the side of the road during a snowstorm, succumbs to lung cancer.

And while we are on the topic: Adoption happens once and then it is over. Adoption isn't who you are--it's how you arrived. Adoption isn't any more to blame for personal shortcomings than, say, being born in a swimming pool in the center of your mother's living room.

. . . which requires a whole second post and new supply of energy.

Sunday Pearls: Trust

Photo by bigcityal

I close my eyes and can hear these words, like a track on repeat, in my head:

“The LORD has everything—time and all its events and all its people and all its possibilities—He has everything under control. There are no furrows of worry on the brow of the eternal God. There are no creases of perplexity, no wrinkles of care upon the face of our Father. He has everything in His control.”

Months ago, I heard those words at a moment when I needed them most.

And now I hear them again.

Favorite Things: Mexican Train

Photo by DoubleM2

Mexican Train.

Quite simply, it's one of my absolute favorite activities. Gather around the table with friends, put on some tunes, and start laying the domino tiles down. Whether or not you win, it's a fun game that allows for lots of conversation. (Though winning is a helpful bonus!)

It's a great game for adults and children alike. And it's a game that can be learned in under five minutes.

Simple game. Easy entertainment. Good time. Read the instructions here.

Worked for my guests and me tonight. I'm beat. Literally--

Dear June: Help My Kids Help

Photo by limaoscarjuliet

Dear June, I have a hard time motivating my kids to do some work while we're home during the day. I think they expect me to do it all. What can I do to get them to pitch in without the whining?

Dear Double-Duty Mom,

I think we all struggle with this from time to time. Here is what has helped my family. First, incorporating some structure into your day can help your kids realize that a productive, happy day (even for little people) is accomplished when both work and play occur. Verbal cues that one activity is about to end and another is going to start establish your expectations and allow them to be successful.

The other thing that has not only turned around my kids' attitudes about work but has also given them a principle to live their lives by is that in order to have some play time we must first do some work. My busy little bees like to flit from one activity to the next. And when they request another activity, I have them perform a task first: make the bed, pick up the toys from the previous activity, clean up your room. I remind them that in order to play we need to do a little work, and they've even started chanting it like a mantra.

Hang in there, Mom. If this is a new habit, it might take some time. But the payoff is lifelong for your little people.

From my home to yours,

Guest Blogger: Eating Organic Part 2

Photo by Wild Tofu

Let's cut to the chase--what organic choices should we be making?

The food industry has become much like the political arena, riddled with propaganda, mudslinging, and artful misrepresentation. And that makes wading through all the hooey, shall we call it, a difficult task.

On the one hand of the organic debate, you have the staunch All-Organic party, composed of members who eat nothing without that organic seal of approval and don't believe you should either. Then you have the Budget Guardians who believe that a wholly organic lifestyle is financially taxing and unnecessarily selective.

So when it comes to casting your vote, I say go independent! Find a balance somewhere between the two extremes. And make sure that balance works for your family's budget and needs.

Do a little research on the topic, as well. Learn what the standards are for your local growers to ensure that the products you buy bearing the organic label are indeed held to the FDA standards. And then buy local. Not only will you be supporting local industry but you'll also be assured of the quality control.

So how organic should we go? Experts say you should choose at least the organic "crucial dozen." These foods are the most susceptible to excess pesticides, growth hormones, and antibiotics. Washing and cooking do little to reduce residual chemicals or hormones.

Here are the crucial dozen:
Beef, chicken, and pork
Dairy products: milk, cheese, and butter
Strawberries, raspberries, and cherries
Apples and pears
Tomatoes
Spinach and salad greens
Coffee
Potatoes
Stone fruits: peaches, nectarines, and apricots
Grapes
Celery
Peppers: green and red

Shall we raise our organic coffee and toast to making the best choices for our families?

The Winter of Our Disconnect

Check out the book at amazon.com

Tonight's In Print column comes from real life. Not mine--yet--but perhaps it should be.

If it's possible to learn something--or be provoked to think about an issue--just from reading the back of a book, this piece should do the trick. Here is what the publisher had to say about The Winter of Our Disconnect:

The wise and hilarious story of a family who discovered that having fewer tools to communicate with led them to actually communicate more.

When Susan Maushart first announced her intention to pull the plug on her family's entire armory of electronic weaponry for six months-from the itsy-bitsiest iPod Shuffle to her son's seriously souped-up gaming PC-her three kids didn't blink an eye. Says Maushart: "Looking back, I can understand why. They didn't hear me."

For any parent who's ever IM-ed their child to the dinner table, this account of one family's self-imposed exile from the Information Age will leave you LOLing with recognition. But it will also make you think.

The Winter of Our Disconnect challenges readers to examine the toll that technology is taking on their own family connections, and to create a media ecology that instead encourages kids-and parents-to thrive. Indeed, as a self-confessed single mom who "slept with her iPhone," Maushart knew her family's exile from Cyburbia wasn't going to be any easier for her than for her three teenagers, ages fourteen, fifteen, and eighteen. Yet they all soon discovered that the rewards of becoming "unplugged" were more rich and varied than any cyber reality could ever be.

Food for thought,

Guest Blogger: In the Junk Drawer

HAPPY . . .

. . . conversation heart reading, Hallmark card buying, heart cutting, red wearing, heart-shaped pancake making, trinket purchasing, mushy thought thinking, kiss giving, double chocolate truffle eating, lovey dovey status writing, poem quoting, picture taking, special meal making, yummy treat baking Valentine's Day, friends!

In honor of V-Day, here's my organizational treat for you. These little Bug 'Em guys have a zipper pouch in the back for all your organizational needs.

Wink, wink.

Sunday Pearls: Good News

Photo by psyberartist

On Wednesday, I made the decision not to check my e-mail.

Next month marks two years since my husband and I began the process to adopt our son overseas. As each day passes, I seem to get more obsessive about checking my e-mail to see if we've heard anything. And on Wednesday, it occurred to me with all the reverberations of a lighting bolt that I was only hurting myself.

So, for the first time in two years, I logged out of my account. Hands raised, I backed up slowly.

And wouldn't you know it? On Wednesday morning--moments after I logged out--the e-mail that we had waited for finally arrived. The subject proclaimed:

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME GOOD NEWS?

[Insert my belated response, which was a giddy, mouth-covered, head-bobbing, tear-filled YES!]

Our paperwork overseas is done. We now wait for the invitation to travel. We have no idea when that will be, but we earnestly pray it will be by the first week of May . . . which happens to be Mother's Day.

And here is what we know: God's will happens in God's way on God's schedule ... every time.

Favorite Things: (Cheap) Entertainment Choices

Photo by franckdethier

I love Friday, and not just because it's the beginning of a weekend. I get to talk about my favorite things.

Since Fridays are often synonymous with relaxation/entertainment, I thought it would be appropriate to share with you my three favorite (inexpensive) entertainment choices. In my opinion, these are the most guilt-free ways to enjoy the entertainment we love.

1. I listen to music at www.pandora.com. Known as the "new kind of radio stations that play only the music you like," you can actually guide the site to play music that you want. And you're never stuck waiting for a song to end before moving on to something better.

2. I watch television via www.hulu.com. All of my husband's and my favorite shows can be found online. We haven't paid a cable bill in almost five years. The commercials are shorter. And you never, ever have to plan your life around the time a show comes on T.V.

3. I rent movies and check out books through the inter-library loan department of my local library. I have never been at a loss when looking for a specific title. And as long as I return the material on time, I never have to pay a penny.

So many choices. So little cost. Why pay extra for entertainment?

Happy Friday!

Dear June

Photo by mazaletel

Dear June, My husband and I are on a fixed income. We made this decision so that I could stay home with the kids. I'm not crafty but want a cute home. Where do you get your inspiration?

Dear Frugal,

I commend your desire to make your home a warm and personal environment. It is, after all, the backdrop of your children's childhood.

As a huge fan of the DIY (do it yourself) community, I have a cache of bookmarked blogs and websites I frequent for inspiration and tutorials. Once you're on these sites, check out their favorite blogs and websites. It can be time-consuming, but it's a good way to find what you like. And many people provide free tutorials for their great ideas. Here are a few that might provide you with the ideas you're looking for:

designspongeonline.com
allthingsthrifty.com
etsy.com
vintagerevivals.blogspot.com
thepleatedpoppy.com

If I could recommend a plan of attack, I'd say to figure out what you like.

1. Start bookmarking your online finds. (Try pinterest.com to keep it all in one place. I promise, I get no kickbacks from pinterest!).
2. Request free Pottery Barn Home and Pottery Barn Kids catalogs. These two publications have great ideas than can be personalized and reproduced.
3. Scour thrift stores; they house many items that are begging for repurposing.
4. Check craigslist for inexpensive look-alikes and fix-me-ups.

From my home to yours,

Guest Blogger: The Low-down on an Organic Lifestyle

Photo by kawanet

Sometimes it feels like the accurate information about "going organic" is kept more on the down-low!

It's not that there aren't websites and articles devoted to the subject, but they tend to contradict one another and leave a hopeful researcher more lost about the subject. We're going to devote the next couple/few/several weeks (I haven't decided; maybe your interest can be the guide) to organic eating.

How important is it? What are the pros and cons? How organic do you have to be to make a difference? And the ultimate question, will my kids hate it?! In our quest to make the most informed decisions for our families, this is an important topic to educate ourselves about. Today, we'll talk a few common myths about going organic:

Organic food is always better for you. Here's a real "duh" moment, but I figured we'd start with an easy one! There are health advantages to going organic, but if you're choosing organic cookies, cake, and chips, they're still loaded down with fat and sugar. Ultimately, these choices are still unhealthy ones, no matter what pesticides are or are not used on the ingredients!

All labels are created equal. Labels that read "made with organic ingredients" must contain only 70 percent organic ingredients by FDA standards. If you're looking for a truly organic product then you're looking for the simple "organic" on the label. This indicates the product is 95 percent organically produced.

Organic farming doesn't use pesticides. The use of pesticides is often the benchmark topic that causes people to embrace an organic lifestyle. And while that isn't a bad thing, in the spirit of educating ourselves, let's settle this issue once and for all. An organic farmer is allowed the use of four pesticides as opposed to the 300 used in non-organic farming. Often, the pesticides used in organic farming break down rapidly in sunlight, thus minimizing risk or occur naturally in the soil and human body.

Organic food is ridiculously expensive. More expensive than foods produced by conventional farmers--I cannot deny it. Organic farming and food production is something akin to the handmade industry. It takes more time and resources, but in the end, the product is of higher quality and value. Because organic farmers don't receive the federal subsidies that conventional farmers do, the cost of organic products reflects the true cost of the field-to-store process.

*Meijer's Organics line of products is competitively priced. Though you can't use your manufacturer coupons on these items, Meijer is working to make organic eating more affordable.In an effort to educate myself, I'd love to hear your thoughts about this issue. Love it? Hate it? Do it? Won't ever? Tips. Tricks. Opinions.


Talk to me, friends!

MRS. JONES: is feeling a bit blue.

Photo by normanack

Welcome to Tuesday's "In Print" blog entry.

Keeping up with the Joneses has been the goal of home managers--whether intentionally or not--for decades. Looking to neighbors' and friends' success (or lack thereof) as a personal benchmark is not uncommon to the typical housewife.

Which is why an article in Slate Magazine caught my attention earlier today.

Apparently, one of the new ways people are "keeping up with the Joneses" is by using Facebook to guage the success of others. And, in fact, the article goes on to discuss statistics concerning people who actually "get depressed" over the happy status updates of others.

Whether or not you agree with this article, it provides a lot of food for thought. While I don't necessarily ascribe to everything in the article, I am still thinking about it hours after I read it.

It should go without saying that people aren't only what their Facebook statuses reveal.

Even Mrs. Jones has her days . . .

Guest Blogger: Visiting the Junk Drawer

Where do you store--and inevitably find--the miscellaneous minutia of your household?

The junk drawer, naturally.

Junk drawers signify chaos and epitomize disorganization. Therefore, we've set aside Monday to talk about all things organization. We'll post within the box (or drawer, if you will) on this topic, but we'll also venture outside the box of our typical thoughts on getting and staying organized. After all, how many wall units can we look at?

Ok, truth be told, we could look at a new one every day for years and still not exhaust the resources. But trust me when I say this theme will be anything but monotonous. Mondays hold the key to helping us be the house honchos we long to be.

Those of us who have junk drawers (read: junk rooms, closets, drawers, corners, dressers, etc.) in our homes and lives have probably packed a junk receptacle for years. Our pencil bags barely had any room for pencils in grade school. In college, our top dresser drawer was a catch-all for everything from school IDs to old letters. And we graduated into independent adulthood by devoting at least one kitchen drawer to ketchup packets, batteries, and the tooth fairy's loot.

That's why today's organizational item is perfect for stopping this insanity from day 1. Literally!

The Baby Briefcase boasts organization from the start! What could be better? I own 3 of these organizers, a gift from someone who knows my penchant for keeping everything in one place. And they've been perfect for holding hospital bracelets, medical records, footprint pictures, first artwork, and much, much more. And what's even better is that one day, I won't have to root around some drawer to produce the evidences that my babies were, in fact, 3-and-4-pound little bundles.

It's all right there in one perfect accordion file.

Sunday Pearls: Forgiven

Photo by kelsey_lovefusionphoto

Here is what I know:

No one has offended me as much as I have offended God.

While on one hand, the truth of that statement is discouraging, sad, heavy--the flipside of that statement is full of promise. I need not carry the burden of disappointments or grievances done to me by anyone else. No matter what anyone does to me, I've done it worse to God.

Last week, someone did some pretty underhanded things to me.
--But I've been more underhanded in my actions against God.

Today, someone said something pretty hurtful.
--But I've said scores of hurtful things to God.

Tomorrow, no doubt, someone will do something--intentionally or otherwise--that isn't right.
--But, no doubt, I will have plenty to take to the throne of grace on my behalf.

The reality is that people do unkind, unloving, unjust things all the time. You know that, and I know that.

But I do unkind, unloving, unjust things all the time

. . . and am forgiven.

Favorite Things: Rain

Photo by angee09

I like way too much stuff.

That "Favorite Things" is only a blog post theme once a week is too bad. It will take me 10 years of Fridays just to tell you about my favorite books. But alas. I plan to be doing this 10 years from now.

Let's start with this:

I love rain. For so many reasons, storms are near the top of my "favorites" list. I would take rain over sunshine any day, a storm over a breeze, a puddle over a picnic. You get the drift. When I see rain in the forecast, I feel my mood improve instantaneously. Offer me ten dollars or a storm and I'll take the storm.

So imagine how excited I was--sitting square in the middle of a non-raining winter that won't end--to discover simplynoise.com. It is the best free white noise generator on the Internet. I have used this site to:

1. Help me sleep
2. Block distractions while I edit
3. Soothe my headaches
4. Improve my focus
5. Calm children in the room

With the free thunderstorm soundscape (which, FYI, doesn't sound like someone is pounding a microphone on the ground and calling it "thunder") I am in total awe of this website . . . the first of my favorite things! Enjoy!

Happy weekend,

Dear June

Photo by rosmary

I can't tell you how excited I am about Thursdays! Our Dear June column is where we'll respond to all the questions and comments sent to House Honcho by you, our readers and friends.

The name of this day was inspired by June Cleaver, a true house honcho who was able to handle any situation thrown her way. We're giving you the opportunity to get some feedback to questions we can all identify with. And if you haven't done so already, please feel free to send in your own questions, comments, and/or thoughts to be addressed in the upcoming Thursday columns.

And if that isn't enough to warm your hearts in time for the next impending snowfall, this announcement will be something akin to your favorite heated blanket: We're giving you more opportunities to get involved on our website, only this time it'll be in the form of CONTESTS! We have a few things up our sleeves including some fun prizes.

So much more to look forward to now on Thursday besides Friday!

Now for our first Dear June column. Here is a great question sent in by one of our readers:

My friend just had a baby. When I stopped by her house to visit I noticed her house was a wreck. How can I offer to clean her house to be helpful without hurting her feelings? I really just want to help.


Dear Helpful,

You are a true friend both for desiring to help your friend who has been distracted by a darling newborn and for having the wisdom and discretion to think first about how to offer your help.

I think the answer to this question really depends on how open your friendship is. If you're tight like see-each-other-without-your-makeup-and-tell-it-like-it-is friends, then you could probably walk in, tell her to kick back, and proceed to clean up the mess for her.

But since you've asked the question, I imagine you're at the level of friendship with her that, though you might see each other without make-up on occasion, you're not quite ready to take charge yet, even for her own good. Therefore, I think the best approach here is to let her tell you what she'd like your help with. Without passing judgment, let her know that you're at her service and that you'd be willing to do anything from laundry to meal planning to cleaning house for her.

The benefits here are that you'll be able to help a friend in need, and she'll feel like she's still in control of her household and able to handle life with new baby.

I hope to be a true friend like you, Helpful! Thanks for your great question.

Guest Blogger: Book of Mom

Photo by MrMedia

The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom.
-- Henry Ward Beecher

As you know, we've categorized our days in an effort to organize our blog. Change can be scary, but never fear. We've promised good changes to our website this year. And this is is one of them!
Wednesday has been dubbed Book of Mom. What we talk about Wednesdays can and will be anything your mom might have passed down to you. Advice? Absolutely. Recipes? Sure. Thoughts on an issue? You bet. Party planning tips? Why not! Maybe I'll even throw in a personal anecdote from my Life as Mom.

For tonight, the first post from the Book of Mom is a brief thought. And it's something I took from a conversation with a man whose wife had a heart attack last year and then another recent episode. These people were completely blindsided as she's 95 pounds and in better shape than most of us.

So after the testing was done following the most recent episode, this woman sat her husband down, told him how much she loved him, and made sure he knew what he has meant to her. She didn't want to leave anything unsaid.

Bill's wife had it right.

Today's chapter in the Book of Mom reads something like this, "Say what needs to be said. Say it now. If we're not guaranteed the next minute, why presume we'll have tomorrow to share our hearts with our loved ones?"

Change #2

Photo by {N}Duran

I promised one change a month for 2011.

I am sitting in my little home office listening to Snowmageddon pound on the windows. Rumor is, we're supposed to get a foot of snow tonight. If you don't hear from me tomorrow, please, someone come and dig me out of the igloo I will be occupying.

As I said a few weeks ago, we are making one change per month to this little website. So many ideas, so little time.

And so, because today is February 1, here is change #2 for 2011.

We will be organizing the blog around daily themes. Don't worry. The themes will still allow for all the creativity you could ever stuff into a blog entry. But this is our effort to streamline the many topics we want to cover on a regular basis.

Without going into too much detail, here is what we have planned.

Monday: The Junk Drawer
Tuesday: In Print
Wednesday: The Book of Mom
Thursday: Dear June
Friday: Favorite Things
Sunday: Sunday Pearls

SO much is planned for 2011. Stay tuned, loyal readers and friends. Come back to learn more about these daily themes. And check out today's to-do list for our first Spring Clean-athon task!

Stay warm!