The only things I never run short on at my house are to-do’s, from picking up the dry cleaning to dropping a kid off at soccer or dance. If, like me, your life is a crazy carousel of errands and appointments (and really, what mom’s life isn’t?), you’re going to love this Happeez whiteboard from Mayfair Lane.

Oh, I know, you’ve seen dry-erase boards before — so have I. But usually, behind every great board is a not-so-great backing: they generally either have magnets (which won’t work on stainless-steel fridges and non-metal surfaces) or they’ve got an adhesive that leaves gummy goo behind once the board is removed. I don’t know what kind of magic Flubber is used on the Happeez board, but it sticks just about anywhere, and comes off without a trace. I’ve been using mine to write down our family’s schedule each day for our babysitter...and who knows, if my kids slack off on their chores, I may make them a list and stick it right on their bathroom mirror, hee hee! ($18, available at mayfairlane.com and retailers nationwide and in Canada)

Have you seen Flickr's new Galleries feature? In their own words:

For whatever you find interesting, fascinating, or mind-blowing on Flickr, galleries are a way to curate up to 18 public photos or videos of your fellow members into one place around a theme, an idea or just because.

Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Kid + Cat Scream
Word Art 
Puppy Pouts  
I Am Superman  
A Red Tutu 
Balloons

The "add to gallery" feature could also come in handy when you're gathering inspiration for a birthday party, a baby shower, nursery décor...or, if you just feel like drooling over some Donut Porn, there's that too.

BTW...wish you could learn how to take better photos without investing a huge amount of time or money? Check out the Digital Days weekend workshops presented by our sister site, Pop Photo. Upcoming locations include Portland, OR, Dallas, TX, and Albuquerque, NM -- check the site for details!

Plus:
Secrets of a Baby Wrangler: How to Take a Winning Kid Photo
Enter the 2009 Homemade Halloween Costume Contest (And Win a $500 Gift Card!)
31 Amazing Birthday Cake Designs

I'm about to take some vacation days and, like most moms I know, I can't imagine sitting on my butt for a week. So, I have some big plans for my little apartment.

(Husband,
If you're reading this, don't say I didn't warn you.
xoxo!)

1. Our daughter's closet looks like a Babies R Us outlet mall. That's just wrong. Serious organizing and (still more) donating to come.

2. Our family desk has become a dead letter office. I couldn't find my checkbook the other day. Ridiculous!

3. I'm woman enough to admit that I own too many pairs of shoes. Each would be perfect for any number of special occasions – like the senior prom or the opera – but I'm willing to live without them and deal with my footwear needs on a case-by-case basis.

4. After years of obscurity, the mysterious collection of stuff on the top shelf of our hall closet is about to get exposed to sunlight. Call Geraldo!

5. This year, my books overflowed onto the floor. Provided we don't have a relative living on the top shelf of our hall closet, I'll store them there.

I swear on my last Christmas cookie: the only thing that could stop me from completing my mission is a raging stomach virus. Or a Mythbusters marathon. What about you? Any end-of-the-year makeover plans?

Wish me luck!

I have thought a great deal about photo albums and frames lately. This is because I got married this year, and I’m feeling the pressure to display my photos in the Most Perfect Album and make sure family members get copies of their favorite photos, preferably in the Most Meaningful Frames. I imagine it’s not unlike the guilt new moms feel about making a baby book and keeping up with grandparents’ insatiable desire for new pictures.

Thankfully, my best friend is a multi-talented fifth grade teacher/master scrapbooker, so she is going to save my sorry self and help me put together my album, with this new PicFolio album from Creative Memories. It has slots for photos, so there isn’t too much danger of me messing up this Very Important Heirloom with a misguided glue stick. (Or adhesive dots, whatever it is you clever crafty folks use.) I think it would work really well as a baby book for a semi-crafter like me, since you could keep adding photos and as many or as few cute scrapbooky doo-dads as you have time to include.

The other new photo album I’ve come across that’s different from anything else is this Take Your Pix board book photo album.

What a great idea! Babies love looking at faces and they love chewing on books, so now they can gnaw on Grandma and Grandpa (which you can take a picture of and then send to them—everybody wins!). But I don't think I'm done obsessing over creative ways to deal with photos—wedding or otherwise. Anyone got any good ideas?

When my kids were really little, they hated when we threw out anything of theirs. Didn’t matter if it was a broken toy, a puzzle with three pieces missing, a sock with no mate, or a piece of paper with the tiniest scribble on it. “Are you THROWING THAT OUT?! Nooooooo, don’t! That’s SPECIAL!!!!!!” they would wail.

Of course, we threw stuff out anyway—we just got sneaky about it. And at first, we made a crucial error: We’d discard things in the usual white bags that we use in the kitchen garbage pail. Sometimes at night after they were asleep, I’d make the rounds with a garbage bag, picking up scraps and discards—the fast-food cup that had to come home because it had a princess on it, the 12th finger-painting brought home from preschool that week, the sandal with the broken strap. And the next morning, if I hadn’t had the foresight to bring it out to the garage and put it in a can with a tight-fitting lid, inevitably one of them would see the bag, make a beeline for it, and spot some “treasure” through the translucent white plastic. And the wailing would begin.

This is when we discovered the wisdom of using black garbage bags. They hide everything! And thus, a new phrase entered our lexicon. One of us would be decluttering a closet or something, and the other would wander by and say, “Uh oh—you better black-bag that stuff QUICK.”