Squidoo lenses on Family, Shopping, and Product Reviews

“All That I Am, Or Hope To Be, I Owe To My Mother”

Mother’s Day is typically seen as a happy holiday, but it can be a painful one for those who have lost their mothers.  I wrote this lens because my mom died 15 years ago. Her death was completely unexpected; she committed suicide. Besides the grief of her death, I never thought I’d celebrate another Mother’s Day again.

While death isn’t the typical topic for holidays, this Mother’s Day tribute lens is one of my favorite lenses because it’s personal: a way to honor my mom and her unwavering support, plus a way to help others in a similar situation.

In the U.S., Mother’s Day will be celebrated on Sunday, May 9th. When the honoree is deceased, Mother’s Day can serve as a painful reminder of your loss. The lens gives information on grief and loss, which can be helpful if this is your first (or few) Mother’s Day without your mom. I also include books on healing, parenting without a mother, ideas to honor your mom this Mother’s Day, remembrance projects, and Mother’s Day gifts to give to someone who has lost their mom.

Visitors have posted stories about their mothers and their ideas for honoring a deceased mom. I’ve felt fortunate to been able to offer support to others who may be grieving on Mother’s Day.

I’ll miss my mom on Mother’s Day; my family will honor her memory with a prayer and a remembrance project. We’ll share stories, particularly for my son to keep her in his heart – the smart, funny, loving grandma he never met, but she would’ve been. Since I’m a mom, I know I’ll love whatever my teen son decides to bless me with that day.

I recently found a letter from my mom brainstorming what career I should pursue after college. On the list of helping others in some sort of social service / teaching position and environmental “green” jobs (which was only a budding career in the mid ’90’s), she wrote, “I always imagine you as a writer”. I’d like to think my mom’s proud of me, especially for writing her tribute lens.

Giant Squids have the opportunity to customize their lenses with sidebar widgets.  While Giants tested it first, all lensmasters can use these personalized, sidebar widgets now (Thanks to theFluffanutta for reminding me about this). I like the available choices so far and have played around with this option on a few of my lenses. The widget can include an RSS feed, Featured Lenses, Amazon Spotlight, Squidcast, and Facebook Fan Box. It’s interesting to see how others are using the personalized widget to pump up their lens with  relevant products or similar lenses.

On my lens, Jennifer Akers : Freelance Writer on Squidoo, I added an RSS of my website’s blog: Jennifer Akers, Freelance Writer Hooked On Social Networking.

On my popular toy lens, The Best Lego Toy: LEGO Mindstorms NXT 2.0, I added Amazon Spotlight with three recommended LEGO building books. Many visitors are looking for more projects to build and instructions for the new LEGO Mindstorms kit.

I also made three book recommendations on my cooking lens, Easy To Use Kitchen Tools and Gadgets. Many of the tools and gadgets are geared toward people suffering from Arthritis, Fibromyalgia and other mobility limiting illnesses. I recommended three cookbooks to help with slow cooking, as well as easy and simple recipes.

I have a few local lenses about my city and surrounding cities. I added the Featured Lenses widget to Things To Do In Largo FL with my other city lenses. On Legoland Florida, I added the Featured Lens widget with other lensmasters’ lenses about Florida cities and places. I also made a camera recommendation in an Amazon Spotlight widget.

Are you personalizing your sidebar ads? Do you think the widgets will pump your lenses with great content and product suggestions? I’m happy with the appearance and the ability to personalize the widgets. I’ve tried all the options, except Squidcast.

I’m interested to see if others are noticing clickouts from the widgets.

I joined Rocket Moms last summer, but the timing of the last graduation deadline coincided with end of the year writing project wrap-ups, Giant Squid application, and then a barrage of technical problems. With generous help from my Squidoo friends, I became a Giant Squid in January and then earned my first Purple Star for Jennifer Akers :: Freelance Writer, where I share my articles, lenses, social networks, and a huge list of writers’ resources.

Despite — or maybe because of — the amount of time I spend online, I seem to attract all kinds of technical problems (broken fans, wacky keyboards, viruses, and so on). The whole family is online, so trying to piece together a variety of aged computers to make one decent one is a difficult task in itself. Then we have the time issue of sharing one computer when we all want (need?) our own.  Another downside has been delaying projects or reviews because I haven’t had the time or equipment.

Now for good news: I finished 6 weeks of Rocket Moms. I’ve had fun and learned a lot. With RM assignments, I tried new templates, like Hey Monkeybrain and Quiz. I’m looking forward to graduation and continuing into the next session.

For this last session, I created six lenses.  Music lenses: Rick Springfield, Quiz: 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Jessie’s Girl by Rick Springfield (I enjoyed revisiting my teenage heartthrob’s music videos); a niche lens: How To Write A Book Review; a Valentine’s Day lens: Surprise Her With Beautiful Marcasite Silver Jewelry; a debate: Banned Books: Protecting Our Society or Infringing On Freedom of Speech?; and a cooking lens: Easy To Use Kitchen Tools and Gadgets.

Every lens seems to teach me a new lesson.  To learn even more about making the best lenses, I’ve also joined Professional Squids, a ning group about creating quality content and learning from Squidoo experts.

My immediate plans are to continue learning and improving my existing lenses in a couple new groups, continue with Rocket Moms, and expand my online presence on other networking sites.  I’m excited about putting all the pieces together as I move toward the business side of writing.

I’m working on more Christmtas shopping lenses with Rocketmoms. I like giving gifts that a friend will enjoy at Christmas and the new year. For a toy lens, I decided to highlight puzzles. My son’s “new” musical exploration  of The Beatles inspired my latest toy lens.

In stores, my son always stops at The Beatles’ memorabilia. The latest to catch his eye is puzzles.  I had fun finding puzzles to include in The Beatles Puzzles. All the puzzles depict The Beatles’ cover albums. It’s so hard to decide which one would make the best puzzle gift. Can you imagine solving a puzzle made from The White Album?

As the holidays are quickly approaching, New Year’s becomes the focus. One of the first things I buy is a calendar. Actually, I will buy at least three 2010 calendars. My husband and I enjoy the nature calendars. My son enjoys themed calendars. I like reading inspirational quotes every month, so my new lens is on 2010 Inspirational Calendars.

My last calendar was my son’s 2008-2009 calendar, and it ended in August 2009. I decided to make my own for the last few months (not the cool, personalized kind — just one drawn on paper), but I miss the beautiful photos and inspiration from my traditional calendar. I’ll buy a calendar with big blocks for each day; one that gives me enough space to write all the family important events. I’m lost without a good place to write all the dates and deadlines.

For those supporting my journey to applying for Giant Squid, my lens total is 46.

With RocketMoms’ assignments and Giant Squid Challenge support, I’ve created three new lenses. I’ve had a lot of fun creating lenses for RocketMoms’ shopping lenses and adding to their unique holiday gift ideas. As I work on holiday lenses, I’ve enjoyed visiting memories of past Christmas seasons and family traditions.

My son creates stop animation movies with Legos, so you can imagine that any LEGO set is big on his Christmas list. The Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 actually lets you build a real, moving robot. It’s amazing what you can build with this kit. You can build four different types of robots. The robot can move, sort colors, talk, and many other motions that you create with computer software and download into your robot project.

One of the RM assignments was to create and share a kitchen lens:  a product / gadget, tip, or recipe. I realized how much my family loves salt & pepper shakers and always sets out special Christmas Salt and Pepper Shakers.  I have a couple holiday shaker sets, like my cute reindeers, and I found more wonderful shaker sets. My shopping list has grown (I loved the kissing Santa shakers). The lens brought back loving memories of my mom and her Christmas table settings.

I started thinking about other holiday memories and traditions, as I built a funny lens on how to celebrate “A Christmas Story” Christmas For Your Family. Our family watches the movie, A Christmas Story, every year. My husband and son think it’s hilarious, and it’s been added to our traditional Christmas movie queue.

I also entered a Twittermoms’ blog contest on your five favorite holiday activities with your kids. What are your traditions for the holidays? Is there some family activity that makes your Christmas special? I’d love to hear about it.

On my desk, I have the typical “writer” tools: paper, pens, writing books, and my cell phone. I also usually have a glass of water and a snack, which is currently a couple rolls of Necco Wafers. Mine are mini-wrapped rolls, with nine wafers.

The wafers include a variety of flavors like chocolate, lemon, lime, orange, clove, wintergreen, cinnamon, and licorice.  The lemon and chocolate are my favorites. I think I’ll try the all chocolate Necco Wafers next. They come in four chocolate flavors: milk, dark, white, and mocha.

Did you eat Necco Wafers as a child? They’re a similar taste to Sweethearts, those candy hearts, stamped with endearing phrases, like Will You Be My Valentine? or I love you. Wafers are thin, large, smooth circles of candy.

They make a refreshing treat without being too sugary sweet.The ingredients include all natural flavors and colors in red beet, purple cabbage, tumeric, caramel color, and paprika.

At Thanksgiving, I plan to make a surprising and tasty place setting using Necco Wafers.  The mini rolls are a little over an inch long, and I’ll hide a candy roll underneath a folded name card.  On the card, I’ll write the guest’s name and a question “What was your favorite childhood candy?” Since we enjoy sharing memories at Thanksgiving, the wafers will be a great starting point to reminisce about our favorite childhood candy. My aunt will be happy; she has already mentioned she loves Necco Wafers.

Thanks to Twittermoms for sharing the information about Necco.  A big thanks to Necco for sending me samples and providing a refreshing, writer’s treat and what will surely be a fun activity at Thanksgiving.

It’s almost Halloween, and my thoughts wandered to “Where The Wild Things Are”, a new film based on the children’s book by Maurice Sendak. I remember reading the book to my son when he was little, and it’s on our bookshelf today. I’m curious about the movie because the book is only ten pages, with illustrations. The film trailer looks grand, like it captures Sendak’s large, adventurous illustrations.

I reviewed Sendak’s book on my latest lens, Children’s Book – Where The Wild Things Are. I had a lot of fun since there are more activities available than when I read the book to my son a few years ago. I found Where The Wild Things Are lesson activities for art, language arts, geography, P.E.,  and social studies for ages K-8. I also discovered Where The Wild Things Are themed clothing, costumes, and cupcakes.

If you’re interested in Where The Wild Things Are costumes for Halloween, check out the lens for both store-bought and hand-made costumes. I absolutely loved the kid’s homemade costume for Max. It’s very easy to make, with a simple hoodie and sweatpants as the basic outfit. I also love the costumes that pull double-duty, like the Max pajamas that can also be worn as a Halloween costume.

From a literature point of view, Where The Wild Things Are is an intriguing book. Sendak wrote the book in 1963 and won the Caldecott award. When it was first released, the book received a lot of criticism for its dark themes: the child misbehaves and the mother sends him to his room without his supper. It’s there that the world opens up, and Max goes on his adventure with dark creatures of the night. While you’re on my lens, voice your opinion on censorship of children’s literature.

Forty plus years later, and Where The Wild Things Are is a classic tale, now released as a film. The last question, like other made-to-film books, which is better: Where The Wild Things Are book or movie?

I’m asking for a couple of reasons. If you read my blog, you will have undoubtedly noticed my summer absence. It wasn’t intentional. I set my personal and writing goals, and things were going as planned. Until my husband suddenly got sick, and we found ourselves in the midst of misdiagnoses, confusion, and living that saying, “When it rains, it pours”.

My husband wasn’t suffering a life-threatening illness, though it was long-lasting and affected his quality of life. The doctors gave us no hope the medications would even help. We refused their bleak dismissal and found alternative treatments, which are working remarkably well. While trying to take care of my family, I wrote but cut back on some projects.

So what am I doing now? If you’re on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In, we probably ran into each other as I’m pretty active on those networks. I’m writing more now — articles; web content; press releases; book and product reviews; and Squidoo lenses. I was part of  SquidLog, RocketMoms and TwitterMoms and boy, let me say, those are super places to be. I still have my eye on being a Giant Squid (it’s taken me longer than I hoped, but the journey’s going forward. I’m on lens #37 now and setting a December goal).

I wanted you to know what’s been going on in my part of the world.  Life is good and getting better … although it’s still summer. Both in a quasi-timeline of this blog and also, the feels-like season of my native Florida, where it’s 90 + degrees Fahrenheit in mid-October.

I hear the weather’s going to be a cool 75 degrees this weekend. I’m planning my writing time so I can enjoy the beautiful weather. I’m looking forward to share even more exciting news with you.

Thanks for sticking around here. Please, drop me a line and let me know what’s happening in your section of the globe?

I meant to blog about Twttrlists last week and then other projects came up. I made a few Twttrlists to try it out. I thought it was a fun idea to use tweets in building a lens.

My first lens was on Best of 3 Breakup Words. The 3 Breakup Words started as a fleeting Twitter game using the hashtag “3BreakupWords”. I added funny tweets and a tweet by Justin Timberlake.  I wanted the lens to be fun, so I left off some of the really nasty tweets. I also added Squidster’s lens, Best of 3 Words After Sex, since the topics were related. Depending on what words you said after sex, you could be hearing some breakup words.

The second was the Best of Google Friend Connect. This one is in the top 100 Twittrlist list. I added content from Squidoo lenses, Hubpages, and YouTube. I liked how the lens came out.

I’ve already gone back and added new tweets to each lens. I entered both in The Best Twittrlist Contest. Plus, they will count toward my Giant Squid count, though I’m trudging closer to the deadline.

I’m enjoying reading everyone else’s Twttrlist too – great ideas out there. I’m not surprised – Squidoo lensmasters are a creative and smart bunch of people.

I just read about an interesting Twittermoms contest, based on the latest movie release “Away We Go”. The movie is about a couple expecting their first child, and they’re traveling the U.S. in search of the perfect home.  It sounds like a funny and sweet film.

The contest is asking participants to answer, “What Does Home Mean to You?” I think when I was younger, I would’ve answered somewhere close to my mom. She made me feel special, safe, and loved. What could be better. Now, my answer has changed a bit because my life has taken many turns: my mom passed away 14 years ago, I’ve moved several times, I’m a mom of a 12-year old, and I remarried 6 years ago.

Home isn’t a particular house or a lifestyle, though I’ve called many places “home” for those reasons. Home is a place where I have freedom to be myself and to be surrounded by people I love and who love me.

Right now, my home is with my husband and son, and we truly enjoy spending time with one another.  We accept each other’s foibles because no one should be a cookie cutter person. We cheer each other’s successes and soothe the temporary losses.

Our house is filled with lots of hugs, laughter, and love. That’s home to me.

If you want to enter the contest, visit Twittermoms Away We Go Contest. I can’t wait to read everyone’s responses and see the movie (it’s out now in select cities; June 25th for nationwide release).