Hey – It’s January and everyone is having a post Holiday clearance sale. We decided to have a little fun. This week we are holding a FREE outfit Treasure Hunt! This is how it works…

This week only (until Friday, Jan. 7th) there are SIX outfits in our store that have hidden buried treasure. When you purchase one of those outfits you will get another outfit from our store (our choice) absolutely FREE. Here’s the fun part… you have to find the secret outfits.

You can tell your favorite American Girl that all she has to do is add an outfit to the shopping cart, and then click the “View Cart” icon on the upper right hand side of the page. If the outfit she added is one of our secret treasure outfits another outfit will appear in the cart with a price of ZERO. If not… keep hunting! There is no obligation to buy of course it is just for fun – you can choose which treasures you would like to purchase prior to checking out (but you must purchase the secret treasure outfit to get the free stuff of course).

To make it a little easier for you we have added one secret treasure outfit per category (casual, fantasy, dresses, bedtime, sports, outerwear). Plus for some more fun we will be providing two clues per day via our Facebook page (if you don’t have Facebook you are welcome to call us for the clue).

Click here to start hunting… Good Luck!!

For 10 years I was a corporate geek, for 12 years I have been a Mother, for 4 years I have been an entrepreneur – based on that diverse background I feel very qualified and confident when I proclaim this… There is NO SUCH THING as multi-tasking.  For years we have been told that, if we were a modern woman, we should and would be able to juggle conflicting priorities, multiple tasks, soul-tugging attention getters (like a crying child) with grace and aplomb and all at the same time. I say “hogwash” and if you are trying to do it just STOP.  Shouldn’t a priority be a priority?  Shouldn’t a task get done right the first time?  Shouldn’t your crying child get your full and undivided attention?  If you are multi-tasking… someone or something is getting the short end of the stick.

There are all these “productivity gurus” out there these days.  Every one of them claiming they have the ultimate secret to getting things done.  Here’s my secret, it’s very simple and doesn’t require a 45 minute video, 15 blog posts or a $25 downloadable product to explain it.

Do one thing at a time.

It’s amazing that when you focus on giving your full attention to one thing at a time how quickly your to do list shrinks.  It’s the power of focus.  Don’t check Facebook while you are cooking dinner, don’t pack lunches while you are braiding your daughter’s hair, don’t walk in to the kitchen and then forget what you came in for.  Do one thing at a time and do it until it is complete or you come to a stopping point that makes sense – and if you do stop, put that thing completely aside before you begin something else.

Rashaki a zen master said, “When walking, walk. When eating, eat.” I bet he never lost his cell-phone because he put it down to tie his shoelace on his morning workout, or let his dinner get cold because his kids were fighting over what TV show to watch at the dinner table.

One thing at a time… and with focus.  You’ll feel so much calmer I promise.

Here’s a guest post from my wonderful assistant Nina. What do you reminisce about?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

The drive to our destination took too long and the drive on the way home was a breeze. I guess when you’re excited, time passes by really really slowly. I used to love the gas station stops. There was one particular gas station that was an absolute hit with all of us kids. It had a mini-park! I would spend the entire stop see-saw-ing or riding the swing. Once we get to the beach, it would be lunch time and wow, it was a great challenge for me to sit and eat when the waves were calling!!! My mom wouldn’t let us swim immediately after eating because she said our bodies needed to digest the food before we can engage in other activities. That used to drive me nuts! All I wanted was to don my swimsuit and ride the waves, feel the wet sand on my feet and pretend I was Ariel (from The Little Mermaid).

You don’t realize how much you will miss something – until its gone (or in this case, you don’t get to do it as often). That is why this year, I am organizing a beach trip with my family! But this time around, I will be the one with the checklist.

Here’s a wonderful guest post from one of our fabulous customers, Ann Root.  Please comment below.  If you would like to guest post on Raising American Girls we would love to hear from you.

_______________________________________

I’ve recently rekindled my love affair with fitness. I was ready to start making fitness part of my daily routine, but worried that my hour an evening working out would be taking time away from my 11 year old daughter.

Even so, I couldn’t let worries keep me from bettering myself. I needed to be strong and healthy.  So the evening workouts began. While my husband and I worked out our daughter played or read, but always near-by. I noticed that she would “peek in” on us and once found her reading my Oxygen magazine. Next came her questions:

“Mom, can I try your yoga work out?”

“Sure!”

Followed by,

“Can I do your warm up with you?”

“You bet!”

And then last week she asked if she could try our chest and back routine.

“Wow! Really? Ok!”

I was excited at her interest in fitness and her desire to work-out. She didn’t see it as time spent away from her as I had worried. That’s not to say we don’t have our ups and downs. She does get annoyed that mom can do more push- ups, but she’s also delighted that she’s the only one in the family that can do reclining bound angle pose. It’s my hope that the lessons she’s learning in fitness will carry over to other aspects in her life.

1.       Do what you can and don’t worry what everyone else is doing.

2.       Even when you think you can’t do anymore try to do one more- you may surprise yourself.

3.       Change happens a lot slower than we would like.

4.       A positive attitude allows you to achieve much more than a negative one.

5.       Being good to yourself allows you to be good to others.

As moms and maybe even as humans we often resist doing things in life because we worry about how it will affect others. But what a pleasant surprise, by doing something for myself, by being good to myself I’ve given something good to my daughter.

Ann Root

www.annmroot.blogspot.com