It seems every few days now there is a product recall. Last night while watching the evening news I learned about a new recall for spiral-bound SpongeBob SquarePants address books and journals. Apparently, the binding material contains a high amount of lead. Read the recall information here, from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

While you are at the CPSC Web site, sign up for its recall newsletter to receive recall information via email so you’ll be among the first to know.

“Real Simple” (a GREAT magazine) has an article on their Web site listing “20 Time Saving Tips and Tricks.” I’m always doing two things at once, so I like to think that everything I do is time-saving, but here’s one tip that I like to live by that I got from an amazing book,”Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things that Really Matter.”

Create a shopping list based on your main grocery store’s aisles. Here’s how it works: take a notebook to the grocery store and walk down every single aisle. As you go, make notes of the items you typically buy. When you get home you can type up your list, based on aisles. Print it out, hang it in your kitchen … and as you need items, check them off. By the time you get to the store you don’t have to waste time going down aisles you don’t have any items checked off on your list.

I can’t tell you how much time this list saves. While it takes a bit of time to create it, it’s amazing how much time it saves you in the store every time you go. My friends have been amazed at my list. I am too!

Owning and building your own blog is harder than I thought. I have years of experience managing Web sites, driving traffic to sites, building relevant content that a team of advertising executives can sell so the company can make money — yet I’m having a hard time setting up this blog just the way I want it.

I am learning what it means to work for yourself. Not only is there no paycheck for “trying,” no “A for effort,” I also don’t have a coworker sitting next to me in a cubbie that I can tap on the shoulder for help.

I have a lot more respect for those women who have figured out how to start and own a business (or “just a blog”) in order to make more time with family. I’ll keep trying and maybe I’ll post what I’ve learned so that I can help out the next Mom who is walking the same path I am.

I’m thankful that we live in a world where companies can use the media as a forum to get the word out about products that are not safe for our children, however, I’m tired of all of these toy and product recalls. It seems that every week I have yet another list to review and toys to hunt down to make sure I do/or don’t have the exact toys that are on the recall list.

Today, it’s a car seat, last week Mattel toys, the week before Fisher-Price toys. How many of these will be have to go through?

Here are a couple of links of the recall lists that I recently found. It’s better to be safe than sorry, so take a few minutes today to ensure your kid’s toys are not on one of these lists.

Mattel (includes video from Chairman)
Fisher-Price toys (list includes toy name, ID and a thumbnail photo; information from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Britax Car Seat (from BabyCenter.com)

What they never tell women before they become mothers is how often you will help your child get toys that have become stuck in every nook and cranny in your home: under every dresser that is too heavy to move, in the tiny spaces between books and book shelves, you get the idea. I just fished out a car that got stuck under a heavy book case. The other day I had to finagle toys from under the refrigerator, not a pretty sight! Luckily I have long hands and fingers and a will to get the toy; we haven’t lost one yet!