All of us want to offer comfort and support to someone who is hurting, but we often don’t know what to say or do. The Art of Helping—What to Say and Do When Someone is Hurting addresses 30 of the most common heartaches people face and takes away your fear of involvement by helping you understand what people are feeling and going through. From over 100 interviews and her own life experiences, author Lauren Briggs shares proven advice and offers practical help with a list of what to say— and do. 

Why should I read The Art of Helping?

Do you know someone who is facing a crisis and wondered what you could do to help?  Have you ever faced a difficult time and wished your family and friends knew what you were going through and knew how to help you?

I found that during my darkest hours, no one knew how much I was hurting, what I was going through or how they might help.

This is a book you’ll want to read before you need it—so that you will have ideas of what you can do and how you can respond—when you first hear the news. We want to help our family and friends through the hard times, but the right words or actions just don’t come to mind. The Art of Helping will give you the tools and enable you to turn thoughts into action.

How will The Art of Helping change me?

The Art of Helping is your go to book when life gets tough. It is a social Bible filled with concrete, tangible action items to empower you to make a difference at times when we would otherwise feel helpless. When people get this book in their hands, they always say, “How I wish I had this book when my friend needed help.”

What are some basic Do’s and Don’ts I need to know?

DON’T wait before you make contact.
DO Respond as soon as you hear the news.

DON’T SAY “If there’s anything you need, give me a call.”
DO Offer a specific thing you can do.

DON’T put pressure on yourself to do something you don’t like to do.
DO use your gifts and talents to help.

DON’T minimize what they are going through.
DO offer caring statements of acknowledgement.

DON’T ASK “When will you be your old self again? or Aren’t you over it yet?”
DO understand that once their life is touched by tragedy, they will never be their “old self” again. They will eventually reach a “new normal” but life will never be the same.

What are some of your favorite creative suggestions in The Art of Helping?

• A mother of two young children picked up a hurting family’s laundry on Mondays, took it home and returned it all laundered and folded on Thursdays.
• A man volunteered to come mow the lawn once a week and do some simple “honey do” chores.
• My sons brought their game boy to the hospital for a friend going through chemo therapy. Every few days they would bring a different game to swap.

How can I learn more about The Art of Helping?

The Art of Helping is reshaping the way people reach out to others. To view more information, visit my website: www.laurenbriggs.com. You can follow me on Facebook as Lauren Littauer Briggs and on Twitter as @Laurenbrgs. The Art of Helping is available in e-book and paperback formats through Amazon.com. If you would like an autographed copy of The Art of Helping, email me at Laurenbrgs@aol.com.

What I love most about it is that it is fast.  I love the bulletin board interface.  We have such a large family that the physical bulletin board in our own kitchen doesn’t even begin to give us the room we need to store the bits and pieces of our lives.  AboutOne also makes it easy to create important lists such as household inventory, important phone numbers for babysitters, and reminders for upcoming doctor’s appointments.  So it’s also like a digital filing system and more!

I am so excited to use AboutOne this school year.  Corey (my oldest) just started middle school so now I have two different administrations to deal with.  Jamie began working on his specialist degree so I have to keep up with his schedule.   Of course I have my own doctor’s appointments and such to worry about along with making sure that I remember the small things like the picture Simon drew or the time he pretended to be Harry Potter with Jamie on Sunday. I can make note of those things on the AboutOne site and it will all be there when I go back to create a newsletter for my family come Christmas time.

As a promise to myself, I want to declutter my desk.  It’s full of paintings, scraps of paper with conversations or funny things the kids said.  I’m going to scan those in and keep them on our AboutOne page.  If anything, AboutOne can help anyone who needs to learn how to declutter.  I can’t tell you how many receipts I’ve accidentally thrown away.  With AboutOne, I vow to actually keep those in our virtual filing cabinet.

Win a FREE SUBSCRIPTION to AboutOne.com!

To enter sign up for a free trial of AboutOne.com using this link:

• https://app.aboutone.com/freeaccount?utm_source=AUGUST&utm_medium=BACKTOSCHOOL&utm_campaign=RMM

Then be sure to fill out this form:  http://bit.ly/n5rqaD

One winner will be chosen at random from all entries across all blogs to receive the following prize: $500 AMEX gift card and an upgrade to a free subscription to AboutOne.com to 1 grand prize winner + a $250 donation to the school of their choice.

All other entries will receive an email with a code for 25% off a one year subscription to AboutOne.com.

This giveaway ends September 9th at 11:59 p.m. ET and is open to U.S. residents age 18 or older.

This review was posted in participation with Global Influence and AboutOne.com. I was compensated for this post.

Unfortunately, those cake pops turned out to be the messiest, ugliest disaster I’ve ever attempted (aside from the literal train wreck of a cake that I made for Timothy–but that’s another story).  The cake balls wouldn’t stay on the lollipop sticks and the chocolate coating made them so heavy that they started falling off even after trying to put them in the freezer to make them stay.  Long story short: I vowed never to try cake pops again.

Enter Babycakes.

Mom Central and Babycakes sent me a Cake Pop Maker to try.  I was excited not only because my first cake pop experience was a flop but because the Babycakes Cake Pop Maker claimed to bake the cake pops in minutes.  Minutes!

The Cake Pop Maker comes with everything you need–the maker, lollipop sticks, a little two-pronged fork to remove the cake balls from the maker, a stand to hold the cake pops for decorating, and a recipe book for cake pops and donut holes.  We chose to try the Lemon Cake Pops since my favorite cake in the world is lemon cake.  Don’t get me wrong–I like a good chocolate cake but whenever there is a choice between the two at the church Wednesday night supper, you can bet I’m going to choose the lemon cake.

My family all worked together to create the cake pops.  Simon helped by pouring the flour mixture into the mixer while I scraped the bowl.  After that, the boys helped by constantly running into the kitchen to ask when they were going to be ready.  Once the batter was done, I had to spoon it into the little holes in the Cake Pop Maker.  The directions recommended using a pastry bag or a ziploc bag with the corner snipped off.  At the time, we didn’t have any ziploc bags because the entire box magically disappeared and not one of the children knew what happened to it.  I will say that I wished for a bag because spooning the batter into the reservoirs was a tricky task.

Nonetheless, it took five minutes for the cake pops to bake and removing them with the provided fork was super easy.  I’d say it took about fifteen minutes to bake 18 cake pops from start to finish.  We let them cool then put them in the freezer as directed.  While they were chillin’ in the freezer, Jamie was preparing the icing from the recipe provided in the cookbook.  It was a team effort to dip the cake pops in the icing and place them in the stand, but I must say it was WAY easier than the first pops we tried to make.

The only thing I was disappointed about was the fact that we only got one cake pop stand and it holds 12 cake pops.  The recipes make more than a dozen so we had to use a piece of Styrofoam to hold the extras.  I would have liked to have at least one more stand come with the cake pop maker.  We don’t usually have a foam block sitting around so we used one that came in the Cake Pop Maker box.  It did the job, though.

You can see that the cake pops are colored a little differently.  The bottoms of the cake balls are darker so they have this two-toned look.  If we used a chocolate coating or one that isn’t transparent like the lemon icing was, the coloring of the cake pops would be unnoticeable.  It didn’t matter.  Those cake pops were freakin’ delicious and were eaten up by our family in a matter of days.  It was hard not to eat just one at a time.

I’m planning to make cake pops for Corey’s birthday party next week.  He has requested chocolate with sprinkles so wish me luck!

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Babycakes and received a product sample and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Alright.  If you’re a guy or don’t feel like reading about my personal care, I suggest moving on.  Otherwise, keep reading.  I’m about to get honest up in here.  And it involves bladder problems…

After giving birth to four children, my urinary tract is shot. There is no more jumping on trampolines anymore. The last time I tried to play with the boys, even after completely emptying my bladder, I kept peeing on myself.  Now that I’m a Zumba instructor, I occasionally use routines that involve jumping. You can only guess what happens then.

My only saving grace has been to wear pantiliners in every class.  This means almost every day and not just when it’s that time of the month. Yes, I do wear them for added protection during my period, but all other days when I know jumping will be taking place, you can bet that I count on pantiliners to keep me fresh.

Mom Central sent me a sample of the new Carefree Acti-Fresh Liners that are 40% thinner and up to twice as absorbent (compared to the previous Carefree Body Shape liners).  I’ve been using Carefree liners for years and was really excited to try these.  I definitely need the absorbency!

You know what? They work. I am definitely buying these pantiliners as soon as I run out of the sample pack.  I feel fresh after my fitness classes and I’m no longer paranoid about my bladder control problems.  Hooray!

Win it! One reader will win their own package of Carefree Acti-Fresh Liners.

To enter, simply leave me a comment. Make it interesting–what brand do you currently use? Are you already a Carefree user?

The winner chosen and contacted on May 6, 2011.

This giveaway has ended and the winner has been contacted.  Thanks to all who entered!

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Carefree and received a product sample and gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Imagine the look of wonder and surprise when a child receives a photo of Santa caught in their house.

I think this is so neat!  Alls you do is take a picture of your tree or your fireplace, upload it to iCaughtSanta.com, then you can place Santa in your photograph.

I can’t wait to show this to my kids on Christmas Day.  When you “catch” Santa in your house you can do whatever you want to with your photo.  Print it using your favorite digital photo center (Creative Memories!! Hint!!), download it to print from your own printer, and share it on facebook or twitter.  It’s your photo to customize and keep!  There are lots of poses to choose from, frames, and you can tweak the brightness of Santa to make it look as natural as possible.

Buy it!

If you want to catch Santa in your home, use the code SUZY-Q-HOMEMAKER on iCaughtSanta.com to get 25% off your own special photo.

Win it!

I’ve got five free photo codes to give to five lucky readers!  To enter, simply leave me a comment on this post about what your kids want for Christmas.  Be quick, though, because this giveaway ends soon!

Good luck.  :)

Giveaway ends December 24, 2010.

I’m kind of a bad mom when it comes to labeling my boys’ clothing, shoes, and cups.  Permanent markers are constantly misplaced in the house and I never think to buy the expensive dishwasher-safe label tape for my label maker.  I jumped at the opportunity to try Applied Labels because now that we go to the gym all the time, Timothy’s cups, coat, and diaper bag need to have his name on them.

About Applied Labels:

Applied Labels (TM) are Applied Labels LLC’s flagship and most popular product. They’re extremely tough, ultra versatile and perfect for labeling:

• bottles
• sippy cups
• shoes
• school supplies
• gadgets
• summer camp gear
• all those little things that go to early childcare centers

Our labels are available with and without icons or with a second line of custom print.

To label clothing, sandwich an Applied Label (TM) with one of our blank backers. For shoes, stick on a Shoe Shield (TM) that will keep labels in place all year long.

The written instructions for using the clothing label was a little confusing for me, but there are very helpful videos on youtube if, like me, you are directionally challenged or need visual aids.

I highly recommend Applied Labels for parents who need to label their kids’ things for school, camp, or just to keep things organized.

In all honesty, I am not a huge fan of giving gift certificates because I find them to be impersonal.  But I love getting them!  It’s hard to be creative when giving gift cards because one can only disguise the card by wrapping it in endless amounts of wrapping paper or boxes within boxes.  When you want to give a gift certificate quickly, though, say for a friend across the country or if you just want to give someone a little something to make them smile, I think that using eGift Social makes it simple.

The concept:

The new eGift Social makes it easy to send a gift when on the road or in a hurry. And a simple code that can be redeemed at any location means your recipient can pull up their activation code on their phone or online to use no matter where they live.

What I love is that you can connect your eGift account to facebook and send gift codes to any of your friends either through facebook or email.  Say someone is having a hard day and you think a treat from Coldstone would cheer them up (I know it would cheer me up!).  Simply log in, choose your gift, choose your friend, and they’ll instantly receive your sweet gesture.  These are real gifts!  You can actually choose a specific thing from Coldstone to give like a creation or a shake.  From Sephora, you can give certificates or fancy makeup.

I got to try eGift and received a code for Sephora.  Redeeming the code was easy.  You can print out the code to take it into the store, but I am currently out of printer ink.  So I pulled up my code on my phone, showed it to the kind lady in Sephora, and was on my merry way with a cute to go size Philosophy Hope in a Jar which I can’t wait to try.

Check out eGift Social on facebook so you can learn more about sending those last minute gifts!

I didn’t used to be picky about toothpaste until we started buying the Tom’s Of Maine brand.  Once we started using it, all other toothpastes tasted too sweet.  Plus Tom’s gives us the option of choosing a toothpaste with or without fluoride.

About Tom’s of Maine:

Tom’s of Maine is a leading natural products company focused on oral and personal care. For 40 years, Tom’s has been committed to supporting people, communities and the planet.

I’m happy to introduce Tom’s newest line of oral care: Wicked Fresh!™ Long-lasting Fresh Breath Toothpaste and Mouthwash.  The toothpaste gives you cavity protection and uses powerful natural flavor oils and a patent-pending botanical extract to provide long-lasting fresh breath.  The mouthwash helps stop bad breath without the burn. Our refreshing mint flavors leave your whole mouth feeling clean.

Tom’s of Maine has a contest going on!  Share your Wicked Fresh moments for a chance to win some Wicked Fresh!™ prizes on the That’s Wicked Fresh contest page.  And be sure to join Tom’s of Maine on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter @TomsofMaine.

The wonderful Helene Byrne from BeFit-Mom sent me the Bounce Back Fast! Post Natal Core Conditioning DVD to try.

Unlike other post natal programs, which offer nothing more than a generic assortment of toning exercises, the BeFit-Mom system rebuilds the abdominal wall from the inside out, closes abdominal separation, and develops core strength and stability.

The method also fixes the “pregnant looking” belly pooch that far too many moms are burdened with, even years after pregnancy.

This DVD is the only one I found that is specialized for women with diastasis recti.  I found the exercises to be extremely helpful and was able to really “bounce back fast”.  Once I felt confident that my abdominal separation was healed, I could go back to pilates and yoga without having to splint my abs.

Now I want to share the DVD with one of my devoted readers.  It is used (by me) so the box is not in mint condition.  In fact, I think Timothy chewed on the corner of it.  Either way, I know that this will be a valuable resource for any post-partum mom looking to recondition their bodies.

Win it!

For a chance to win my copy of the Bounce Back Fast! DVD, leave me a comment on this post.  Please only leave a comment if you are an expecting mom or have just had a baby.  And make your comment interesting!  Have you suffered from abdominal separation?  What is your post-natal fitness goal?

For additional entries leave a comment for each of the following:

• Blog about this giveaway and leave the link
• Tweet about this giveaway (unlimited–just don’t annoy your friends)
• Share this post in any other way you’d like
• “Like” my blog on facebook using the handy-dandy like button over there on the sidebar

Speaking of the sidebar, take note of the donate button and my Zumba goal.  I know it’s slightly unrelated to this giveaway, but it’s related to fitness.  I want to be a fitness instructor but need the love of my readers, friends, and family to help me reach my goal.  You don’t get any extra entries for donating, but you will get cool points.

I laughed out loud when I got my sample of Cottonelle Fresh Wipes in the mail on Monday.  Seriously.  It just so happened they arrived on the very day members of my family came down with a horrible, horrible stomach virus.  Talk about needing to be fresh! I saw the package waiting for me and the kids were all excited about what might be in it.  They honestly didn’t believe me when I said, “Butt wipes.”  And Aiden was like, “Why would they send you something like that?”  Um, duh.  We obviously need them, especially since we were all having some, er, “issues” that required some extra care down there.

I’ve tried a lot of flushable wipes but haven’t really found a brand I like.  They’re either too small, or not strong enough, or the kids run off with the tub only to take them all out and waste them.  Since these new wipes come with a free EasyReach hanger with 3M Command strips, I can simply attach the hanger near where I have my toilet paper and I don’t have to reach behind me to find the tub or scream at one of the kids to please bring back the wipes.

Obviously, I’m not ashamed to talk about bodily functions on my blog since I have four boys and that’s ALL THEY TALK ABOUT.  I hope that you all take a moment to go visit Cottonelle’s new site GetFreshWithaFriend.com and check out the hilarious video.  You can even get a fresh reward if you take a moment to share these Fresh Wipes with a friend.

I definitely recommend Cottonelle Fresh Wipes to all my readers.  I know I prefer feeling confidently clean and you do, too.

Your heiny will thank you.