Where Was This Book When I Was 10?

I loved the Dangerous Book for Boys. I bought it for my husband for Father's Day and we gleefully read through the whole thing one night. T thought it was the coolest thing ever and we're going to make sure we cover every single topic with our little boys at some point.

But what about the girls?

Enter, The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz. I love both Buchanan and Peskowitz. Buchanan wrote Mother Shock and edited the anthology It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons. Peskowitz's last book, The Truth Behind the Mommy Wars, was an insightful and substantiated look at our conceptions about stay at home and working mothers. So when PBN offered me the opportunity to review their latest, I was thrilled.

I wasn't disappointed. There are so many cool things in this book, I don't know where to start. How to tie knots? In there. Rules for basketball. Yep. An intro to palm reading? Uh huh. How to negotiate a salary? Sweeeeeet! (Did I just really date myself?)

Honestly, I loved this book. And I have 2 boys. Each page of the book took me through a different stage of my life. A time when my mom kicked me out to play with the neighborhood kids and explore until the street lights came on at night. A time when a cardboard box was an armed fortress. A time when the world was at my feet.

As I read through the book, it also sparked my imagination. What do I want to teach my boys (and maybe, someday, girl) as they grow up? How to be a spy? A short history of women inventors? How to write a thank you letter? Yes, yes, and YES.

If you have girls or ever were a girl, run - don't walk - and get this book. I'm giving one to my sister-in-law for Christmas to share with her girls (and her little boy). I know they'll love it. What's not to love about a book that tells you how to do a back walk-over, how to put your hair up with a pencil (dude, do you know how long it took me to figure that one out on my own?), how to care for your softball glove, and five karate moves?

Day Runner Failed to Keep Me Organized (Or Maybe It's Just Mommy Brain)

The brain death began when I was pregnant. I was flying to Boston for the day to meet with an expert testifying in an important case. It wasn't my first trip. I had been working with another partner on this case for more than a year and had made several trips a month to Boston over the course of that year. Um, then I got pregnant and, after a year of traveling to Boston from Dulles Airport outside of D.C., I had my husband drop me off at National one morning to catch a flight.

Yeah, I was at the wrong airport. With no car and no taxis in sight at 6:30am. It only got worse after Hollis was born.

If you're anything like me, you've been completely scatterbrained since having children. When people ask me my age now, I honestly have to stop and think about it. It's a good thing my name is on my driver's license or I might forget that too. So when PBN offered me the opportunity to review the new Day Runner Family Matters planning system, I jumped at the chance. Organize me? Bring it on, baby!

The box I received contained a 2008 soft bound weekly/monthly Family Planner in a tasteful light teal, a ginormous erasable Wall Planner with color coded columns for 5 family members, erasable door reminders, activity folders (again, color coded), and storage cases. (Yep, you guessed it. Color coded.) The one thing I did not receive, was the Monthly Wall Info Center that seems to pull it all together. The Info Center has a place for the calendar, with storage behind the calendar and color coding for each family member. Plus, it's erasable. Brilliant.

I really wish Day Planner had waited to do this campaign until those Info Centers were ready to go. Why? It probably would have been the most useful to me. It would put a calendar, storage, and note capabilities all in one place for me with the color coded system to keep all 4 of us straight. That's a hell of a lot better than the erase board calendar with small bulletin board we have up now.

The over sized erasable Wall Planner I received from Day Planner certainly is nice, but I don't have anywhere to put it. I don't have a bulletin board in my kitchen large enough and, I'm sorry, but I wasn't going to nail or tape the thing to my wall. I just really sure what to do with it. The calendar I received was, again, nice. But without an Info Center to bring it all together, it was just a color coded calendar.

"What did I like?" you're asking yourself. I absolutely loved the erasable door reminders. They hang on the door and have a spot for the erasable marker. I need this. I cannot tell you how many times I have forgotten to leave a check out for our cleaners or to bring in more diapers to daycare for the baby. Again, that mommy brain thing is really hampering me.

The door hangers work great on the lever door knobs we have on all our garage and front doors. If, however, you have a door with a round knob or one that opens into a room instead of out into a room (like a bathroom or bedroom), the door hanger will prevent the door from closing unless you move it around. But for doors leading out of your house? Brilliant! It might also have been nice if they'd included a marker for each door hanger (they only included one), but I have this secret addiction to office supplies and I have a bazillion anyway. If you are not similarly addicted, you might want to pick up a few extra dry erase markers.

I also liked the folders and organizers. Of course, this is something you can pick up in any office supply store on your own and put together, but it wouldn't be nicely color coordinated to all of the other Day Runner Family Planner materials.

I also really likes the Weekly/Monthly Family Planner. It's basically a large soft bound calendar, but it's got color coded note spaces for each family member. The best part is the weekly portion of the calendar. Every day has a column in every family member's color for the entire week on a full open page. You can easily see exactly who needs to be where and when for the entire week in one glance. Love it. I'm a wired in Lawyer Geek. I have a Treo. I've had Palms in the past but I am still drawn to being able to see every detail of the week in one glance. I've never had another organizational system that allowed me to do that.

So, Day Runner people, if you're listening? I'd really, really, really like one of those Info Center things. Are they out yet and where can I buy them? My local Office Max didn't have one when I was in there, um..., I'm embarrassed to tell you all how often I buy office supplies, um..., so it was last week, OK?

I also can't forget to explain the title of this post. How did Day Runner fail to keep me organized? I missed my due date for this review. It was supposed to be up 2 days ago. I forgot to put it on my calendar. Doh! We'll chalk this one up to Mommy Brain, OK?