The latest social-media craze is a virtual pin board, or scrapbook, to collect and organize your favorite images and ideas from around the Web. While the site has something for everyone, it’s dominated by home decor, fashion, food and crafts, and has become the new Internet darling — make that obsession — among women in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

“Pinterest is like fantasy ootball for girls,” said Jeannette Appold of Rosemount, Minn. The 44-year-old attorney and mother of two says the social bookmarking site has added value to her life by bringing out creativity that she never knew existed. “Michael’s (craft store) has gotten so much of my money lately,” she said of her newfound passion to imitate craft projects she’s found on the site.

Pinterest has been around since March 2010, but its popularity has recently exploded, making it one of the 10 most popular social-networking sites. The site grew to nearly 5 million users in November, from just 418,000 in May, according to metrics firm ComScore.

Here’s how it works: When you see an image that you want to “pin” to your “board,” you can capture it using a “pin it” plug-in and add it to your online profile. Everyone who follows you can view your pinboards, comment on them and add to them if they have permission. They can “re-pin” the images to their own boards and you can do the same with what you see and like on their boards. Clicking on the image usually takes users to the original source, so a pin of, say, chicken curry, should take you to the website or blog that provides the recipe.

Make sense? The best way to deeply understand how Pinterest works is to join the site and start pinning.

Many users are crediting Pinterest for adding inspiration and creativity to their lives in new and challenging ways. Appold has 17 different boards organized by books she wants to read, recipes she’s inspired to try and clothes she dreams of owning, to name a few. She also has a board of Pinterest-inspired things that she’s actually made: gifts for her children’s teachers, a prayer pot and chore chart for her kids and a Thanksgiving centerpiece. Appold also uses the site to organize ideas she has for her basement remodeling and a bridal shower she’s planning.

Other Pinterest users like the site for its abundance of practical ideas. Did you know you can use an empty egg carton to organize your junk drawer? How about using toilet paper rolls to store those pesky electronic cables? Such ingenious solutions leave Pinterest users asking — “Why didn’t I think of that?” — and keep them coming back for more.

“An addiction” is the best way for University of Minnesota student Courtney Reigh to describe her Pinterest use. The 21-year-old prefers “pinning” over Facebook and logs into her account five to 10 times a day, spending 10 to 25 minutes each visit scrolling for images of home decoration ideas, recipes and clothes. She’s expanded her style and wardrobe, and learned to make the “perfect poached egg, all to the credit of Pinterest.”

“I can get lost in that site,” she said. “I check it first thing in the morning, right before I go to bed and everywhere in between.”

Some Pinterest users are just getting the hang of it, but are devoted fans nonetheless. As the director of social media for Bentz Whaley Flessner, an Edina, Minn.-based fundraising consulting firm, Justin Ware is well-versed in all aspects of social media. He first became interested in Pinterest as a tool for nonprofit organizations, but he quickly began using it personally, too.

The 32-year-old Minneapolis man has started looking for vegetarian recipes and pinning them to his “good eatin’ ” board. He also has boards to house pictures of dogs, camping gear and photos of his favorite places.

But in the Pinterest world, Ware is an anomaly. Guys haven’t jumped on the Pinterest wagon the way women have. About 70 percent of Pinterest users are female and according to Experian Hitwise, most are 25 to 44 years old.

Not only are most Pinterest users female, but most of them live in the Midwest, where the site first caught on.

Midwesterners are up to 102 percent more likely to visit Pinterest.com than the average U.S. Internet user, according to ComScore.

By Aimee Tjader
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

When do kids stop napping? My two and a half year old son has been resisting falling asleep for about a week now but if he does fall asleep, he’s out for 1-2 hours. How do I know if he needs it still? He’s a nightmare around 5 if he doesn’t nap. Suggestions??

~Stumped Mama

(photo credit)

Dear Stumped:

Napping is a tricky topic as each child has his or her own rhythms and needs. Some kids don’t need naps as early as two and others need them until they are six. Here are some things to consider in handling this dilemma.

A good rule of thumb is that young children need 10-12 hours of sleep a day. So if your son isn’t napping, he’ll need to have an earlier bedtime.

The fact that he’s falling apart around 5:00 without a nap suggests that he probably still needs one. Continue putting him down for a “rest” or “quiet time” and see if the change of language helps.

Young children still need down time to help manage all of the activity and stimulation of the day. If they aren’t napping, make sure to have at least an hour of quiet time. This can mean laying in bed or resting on the floor of their room; listening to quiet music, an audio story, or meditation cd; reading books; or playing with quiet toys are good options. Make sure this a “screen free” time.

Look at the timing of his nap. Does it need to be a bit later in the afternoon as he isn’t tired yet at the earlier time? If this causes any difficulty with going to sleep at night, you may want to adjust his bedtime as well.

Naptime is also important for busy moms. Having that quiet time to yourself to rest, relax, or get things done helps you to recharge to make it through the afternoon and evening.

Share your nap stories!

Motherhood is an amazing journey that can have its share of Mama Drama. The Mama Drama column runs on Fridays with everyday mothering questions from readers and answers providing strategies to tackle these daily challenges. Send your questions and challenges to Lisa@milehighmamas.com, and your Mama Drama could be in next week’s column! Lisa is also available for private consultations. All emails and identifying information will remain confidential. Read more of Lisa’s parenting perspective at her Laughing Yoga Mama blog.

“Teachers are reporting increased participation and attention from students and a dramatic increase in endurance,” said principal Nikki Westfall. “Our families are happier too. They are reporting much less stressful mornings.”

The in-class breakfast model is not new to the state, or even the metro area, but Colorado is trying to expand it through the No Kid Hungry campaign, which includes an awards program for schools that serve breakfast to more kids.

At Clayton, breakfast participation in 2011 reached about 90 percent of students, with an average of 405 breakfasts served daily, up from about 91 breakfasts served per day in April 2010.

That increase earned the school a Gold award in the Colorado School Breakfast Challenge.

The award, which came with a $5,000 gift, was presented by Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia on Tuesday.

Besides knowing more kids have had breakfast, and using anecdotal data to monitor classroom behaviors, Clayton officials compared data from August through December in 2010 and 2011 and found that student tardies dropped by 15 percent. Discipline referrals dropped by 50 percent.

Officials working throughout the state as consultants to help schools find grants and change their breakfast programs have noticed similar results.

“When schools move to a universal breakfast program, we have seen it removes the stigmas associated with eating breakfast. School nurse visits and behavioral problems drop,” said Kathy Underhill, executive director of Hunger Free Colorado, one of the organizations supporting the No Kid Hungry project.

Underhill said programs also are trying to serve healthier foods.

At Clayton, kids get a piece of fruit, a carton of milk and an entree such as a nutrition bar or cereal bar.

Westfall said she plans to use the award money to develop health-and-wellness classes that can be tied to the breakfast program. Some of the funds will also be used to purchase additional insulated food bags and carts so that when the school expands by a grade level next year, those kids could also eat breakfast in class.

The program’s startup cost came from about $6,000 in grants, a sum managers say is an investment that pays off in real dollars and in student outcomes.

“I’m a big believer that if we’re serious about ed reform, we will have to look at making sure children are fed,” Underhill said. “It’s not an either/or. If you have not eaten, your mind is not there in the classroom.”

Yesenia Robles

Investigations completed by the Colorado Department of Human Services since 2007 indicate that social workers in 18 counties repeatedly failed to complete basic functions — such as interviews or follow-ups on assessments — in 43 cases where a child later died from abuse or neglect.

In 40 percent of those deaths — 17 children — county social workers failed to start or did not accept an assessment after a referral warranted an investigation for abuse or neglect.

The state department opens an investigation whenever a child’s death is a result of abuse or neglect and there was contact with the county child welfare system during the two years before the child’s death, said spokeswoman Liz McDonough.

Before 2011, an investigation was opened if a child entered the system five years before the death.

Human Services’ latest investigation will be into the death of 3-year-old Caleb Pacheco, whose body was found tucked underneath a Sterling mobile home last week. His mother, Juanita Kinzie, 24, is in custody and faces one count of first-degree murder in her son’s death.

In 2011, 21 child-fatality reports were launched in Colorado. Two have been completed. Reports become public after they are finished and if they show policy violations or concerns. The Denver Post obtained all 43 public reports completed in the past five years.

Most of the reports included multiple referrals and assessments.

According to The Post’s findings:

One of the reports was on 7-year-old Chandler Grafner, who was starved by his foster parents, Jon Phillips and Sarah Berry, in 2007.

In December, a federal judge ruled that the Denver social workers who were involved with his case were not immune from a lawsuit filed by the boy’s relatives. Phillips was sentenced to life in Chandler’s death and Berry to 48 years.

Caleb’s family members say they last saw the boy in January 2011. During the year he was missing, the boy’s family said they called social services in three counties more than 70 times.

Human Services cannot release details about Caleb’s case or confirm whether his family contacted county departments because the investigation into the boy’s death is ongoing, and a Logan County judge issued a gag order in the case, McDonough said.

Dr. Kim Bundy-Fazioli, an associate professor at Colorado State University’s School of Social Work, said the family’s claims about unanswered calls for help are a concern.

“When families aren’t making progress, there is a lot of chaos, and it can be overwhelming for case workers and service providers,” Bundy-Fazioli said.

“You never know who to interview or who to trust, but it’s not an excuse not to intervene.”

Bundy-Fazioli also was concerned about decreased funding for county programs and increased caseloads for overwhelmed social workers, who often have to make judgment calls on high-priority cases and investigations.

Each of Colorado’s 64 county departments are being asked to do more with less, said Becky Miller Updike, ombudsman with the Office of Colorado’s Child Protection. Often, families in the most dire situations are also more transient, making it harder to track children through school systems and other county departments.

“We have to cut back dollars from our counties every year, causing us to ask them to do more with less,” Miller Updike said.

Jordan Steffen

“Over 66% of nursing care residents receive an average of ONE visit per year. 50% of us will spend some portion of our lives in long-term care.” -Rainbow Bridge 2010

Join Volunteers of America at their February Family Volunteer Event as they throw a Valentine’s Day party for low-income seniors and make their day special!!

When: Saturday, February 11, 2012; 10 a.m.-noon

Where:
1. Volunteers of America’s Sunset Towers, 1925 Larimer Street, Denver 80202
or
2. Volunteers of America’s Montbello Manor, 4355 Carson Street, Denver 80239

Who: You and your family…children of all ages are welcome!

What: Family Volunteers will be throwing a Valentine’s Day-themed party for the residents of Sunset Towers and Montbello Manor, affordable housing apartment complexes for seniors. Age-appropriate activities will include decorating cookies and valentines, bingo, crafts, appetizers and of course, visiting with the residents.

RSVP: Rachel Dolgin, rdolgin@voacolorado.org. Please include the number of people in your family that will be volunteering and your location preference (Sunset Towers or Montbello Manor).

** Please bring your family’s favorite appetizer to share**

It’s confusing. Kind like all the conflicting studies about coffee – or red wine. (I know how I choose to interpret them…)

Does healthy school food make a difference? Or doesn’t it?

Should we just keep healthy food on the lunch tray (read all about the Obama administration’s changes to subsidized school meals announced this week) and not worry about vending machines?

These are potentially costly tweaks to our state’s cafeteria and vending machine food to make at a time when there are so many other competing needs in our classrooms.

My daughter, a fourth-grader in a Boulder Valley school, won’t touch the food at school, even though our very own “renegade lunch lady” Ann Cooper has transformed the nutritional quality of lunches in our school district.

Still, a sizable number of children do eat food at school. And despite the image of Colorado as a fitness paradise, 14.2 percent of our children and adolescents are technically obese, meaning they have a much higher risk for a range of diseases that will shorten their lives.

For some of our children, school provides a primary source of nourishment each day.

Why school food matters

The food our children eat – or even simply look at – at school does have an impact.

Face it. School isn’t just about academics – it’s about helping young people make good choices. Recycling is good. Tossing trash in the street is bad. Smoking is really nasty. Not smoking equates to nice, healthy pink lungs. Being respectful to others is good. Being a bully gets you sent to the principal. You get the drift.

With all the research now in hand, it’s hard to argue that Coca Cola or French fries have any place at school. And, in many cases, Colorado schools have already banished these nutritionally negligent foods.

Whether we need a new state law to limit trans fats, including foods made with margarine or vegetable shortening, should be debated. In light of the new, watered down school food guidelines announced this week, Colorado should step up to do more.

You may recall that Congress – bowing to industry pressure – failed to approve the revised school food rules as they were originally drafted. The original revisions would have limited the amount of potatoes consumed in school lunch (Tater Tots, anyone?) and not counted tomato paste on pizza as a vegetable. As it stands, kids in some districts will still be able to mack down on Fries at every meal. Yet a key question remains: Who will be the designated trans fat cop? If food cooked with margarine is discovered, does the school cook get time in French fry jail?

Regardless of what happens on the federal or state level, schools and districts should embrace these changes on their own, working closely with parents and students in their own communities.

Kids are shaped by what they see. Isn’t it better that they see popcorn, granola bars or fruit in a vending machine vs. potato chips and candy?

The evidence is certainly clear. The consumption of trans fats increases the risk of coronary heart disease by raising levels of LDL cholesterol and lowering levels of “good” HDL cholesterol. We don’t want that for our kids.

Why we can ignore the Penn State study

So, I don’t choose to give that much weight to a recent Penn State study, which found that the percentage of children who had access to candy, soda and chips at school jumped dramatically between fifth and eighth grades yet didn’t translate into extra pounds.

Interestingly, the New York Daily News reported that the percentage of students in the survey who were overweight or obese actually declined between fifth and eighth grades.

The surprised researcher concluded that how kids eat outside and at home has a much greater impact than their exposure to high-fat or sugary snacks in school.

This, of course, makes total sense. But are we better off reinforcing unhealthy eating habits at school, or showing young people there are different – and better – ways to eat?

I’ll argue the latter.

Find more news and information on healthy schools in Colorado and beyond here.

EdNews Parent editor Julie Poppen is a former daily newspaper journalist who has covered a multitude of school issues in Fort Collins, Boulder and Denver. She is also the mother of a fourth grader in Boulder Valley and regular, though not always perfectly proficient, classroom volunteer. Read her weekly blog Confessions of a Partially Proficient Parent.

Cycling, interpreter, naturalist, swimming and hiking survive, even if other skills — milking a cow, curing meat, hog-tying a burglar with an 8-inch cord — did not. Isabella Ozuna, a seasoned Girl Scout at age 11, is thankful for that.

“I know how to ride a horse,” she said, finding one thing that she would have in common with a 1912 Girl Scout.

And she knows how to sell cookies, that venerable fundraising method that’s paid for countless Girl Scout camping trips nearly since the organization started. Since sales started last Sunday, she and her sister, Daisy Scout Annie Ozuna, have sold two dozen boxes.

Of course, today the cookies are manufactured at commercial bakeries, not made at home from founder Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low’s own recipe.

But, for the first time in decades, customers who buy Girl Scout cookies don’t have to wait.

Just as their predecessors did, this year Girl Scouts finally can hand their customers a box of Thin Mints or Samoas on the spot. Eliminating delayed gratification helps soothe the pain of paying $3.50 for 8 ounces (or less). Another update: Now some of the Girl Scouts take credit cards.

At heart, the mission remains the same, says Girl Scouts of Colorado interim CEO Stephanie Foote, who once was a Girl Scout.

“A lot’s changed from the time when Girl Scouts meant cookies, camp and crafts,” Foote said.

“Now the focus is on leadership and development to help girls discover who they are, their values, their passions and skills, their ability to connect with community and take action, to serve and to work as a team.”

That sounds a lot like what Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low had in mind on March 12, 1912, when she convened the first meeting of what became the Girl Scouts. By 1917, those tenets were firmly in place when 18 Colorado girls gathered in Colorado Springs for the state’s first Girl Scout meeting.

A century later, the Girl Scout law still holds up, defining Girl Scouts as honorable, loyal, useful, friendly, courteous, pure, humane, obedient, cheerful and thrifty.

Not to mention being excellent cookie sales representatives, even if those Thin Mints practically sell themselves.

And now, as then, diversity remains key.

Low made sure that the Girl Scout doors were open to African-American, Native American and Latina girls, and to girls from all income levels. Of Colorado’s 30,000 Girl Scouts, about two-thirds are white, with the rest divided among Asian-American, Latina, African-American and other ethnicities.

Last year, Colorado Girl Scouts took inclusiveness to a new level. One Colorado troop included a transgendered scout — a boy who dresses and lives as a girl.

That provoked some conservatives into calling for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies. But it hews to the venerable Girl Scout law, and it underscored the widely adopted Power Up anti-bullying program that originated with the Colorado Girl Scout chapter.

With that rare exception, most Girl Scouts are girls, but they’re not required to be in a troop.

The Juliette Program, named for founder Low, allows girls to register on their own and do projects at their own pace, avoiding conflicts with soccer and other extracurricular activities. Independent and ongoing programs include projects in science, technology, math and problem-solving.

To celebrate the centennial, and to encourage girls to see themselves as leaders — Foote pointed out that today Congress and boardrooms have fewer female members than in the past — the Girl Scouts are seeking partnership from female state legislators, corporations and businesses.

Sixty Denver restaurants will participate in Dine Out for Girl Scouts on Feb. 2, donating 20 percent of sales (excluding alcohol) to the Girl Scouts of Colorado. For more information, visit bit.ly/DO4GS.

You will need newspaper, a stapler, tape, and a dowel rod.
1. Crossbars: You will want to have around 4 Sunday papers handy and use 4-5 sheets of newspaper per crossbar for strength! You’ll make 25 of these crossbars from newspaper and tape.
To make a crossbar, open a newspaper and lay out 4-5 full sheets stacked. Starting at a corner, lay down your dowel rod and roll the newspaper diagonally around the dowel rod, then remove the dowel rod and tape the crossbar securely. Make sure the lengths are all around the same size. I clipped a couple of inches on each end to make the structure more sturdy.

I used clear packing tape to reinforce all of the joints and cover all of the staples!
Preschoolers and older children will love to decorate their playhouse with your help!

As a first-time mom who left her professional career in Texas, Brooke is learning about parenting–and Colorado–as she goes. She offers ways to be more intentional with your family’s time and resources including frugal shopping, toddler activities, travel deals, and inexpensive projects at her blog, Intentional Mama.

Needing an outlet for my feelings, I posted the following on my Facebook page immediately after I heard the news:

“I don’t care about winning streaks, national titles, or hollow sound bites. That members of the Penn State administration barely raised their hands when faced with eye-witness actions of a pedophile who was one of their own shows that those individuals have no heart. That Joe Paterno didn’t act to better protect and defend an innocent child who was raped in his ‘house’ proves that he has no soul.”

I was mad.

But now that time has passed and I’ve reflected on the matter, I feel something much more complex.

In that moment, my sentiment was genuine, fueled by real indignation coming straight from the heart. Any parent knows that the passion nourished by this organ is three-dimensional, and beats more ferociously than anything else.

But in pointing my finger at Joe Paterno, I could have just as easily been looking in the mirror at myself.

About two years ago, I was at the grocery store rushing to pick something up that my daughter, Grace, needed the next day at school. It was late, and I was both preoccupied and annoyed. Like most moms, I was running behind a never-ending to-do list that seemed to square itself and multiply whenever I wasn’t looking. Snow swirled outside, it was an unusually frigid Colorado night, and a humid chill was biting, snapping, and pushing people indoors. All I wanted to do was get what I needed, check out, and go home.

Turning down the frozen food aisle, I came upon a young boy, about my son’s age, and an old man. The man was huge, well over six feet tall, unshaven, wearing dirty old jeans, suspenders, and an untucked, long-sleeved shirt.

The boy? Small. Cowering. A little disheveled as he gazed up at the old man while simultaneously trying to avert his eyes.

He reached for a frozen pizza, and the old man smacked it out of his hand, mocked his sagging posture, and demanded, “What do you think I am, an ATM?”

The boy looked down at his feet and didn’t say a word.

In that moment, I knew something was wrong.

I slowed down and watched them, easing up close and trying to make myself known. The old man realized I was there, looked at me, made eye contact, and didn’t smile. I didn’t smile back.

And then he grabbed the boy by the shoulder, threw me a backwards glare, and dragged him toward the door.

I felt a mixture of emotions then…anger, confusion, pain, sadness…but the one that overwhelmed me at the time and now makes me feel ashamed?

Fear.

That old man scared me, and in a split second I used fear to assess and rationalize what I was about to not do…my husband, Scot, was out of town, the kids were home alone, and the storm outside was getting worse. The old man was probably the little boy’s grandfather, unemployed, and having a bad day.

Except my gut told me that wasn’t the case.

While I tried to convince myself I was overreacting so I could get on with my life, my conscience argued the other side. Strenuously.

But I didn’t listen.

In an instant, I made a decision that will haunt me for the rest of my life.

I turned my head. I closed my eyes. I walked away.

That little boy needed help, and I didn’t extend my hand.

For the last two years, my dreams have been filled with that child’s face. He’s calling out to me, screaming my name, and I’m searching frantically, straining to see through the dark and place the location of his voice so that I can pull him toward me and wrap him in my arms.

But I’m never able to find him, and when I wake up and can’t get back to sleep, I see him hovering two inches above me, eyes wide and afraid. And then he’s gone.

After the Sandusky allegations came to light, the dreams got worse, and the little boy’s face became fused with my son’s: at a football camp, trapped in a bathroom, confused and alone, running down a grocery aisle from someone who’s supposed to be a hero but is instead inflicting cruel and unimaginable pain.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but when I wrote the Facebook post about Joe Paterno, I was also writing about myself.

I’d give anything to have that moment in the grocery store back, to actually listen to my sixth sense instead of brushing it aside. To have made a different choice.

But it’s gone.

Mothers make mistakes. Famous coaches make mistakes. We all make mistakes. Unfortunately, we often have no idea in the moment how big those mistakes can become.

Everything matters. The little voice inside your head that won’t shut up? Listen to it. The guy sitting on your shoulder who you’d just as soon leave? Hear him out.

Joe Paterno’s problem wasn’t rooted in the actual commitment of a crime. His mistake was ignoring the voice that must have plagued him in his dreams, or two inches above his face when he couldn’t sleep at night.

Left alone, the voice of indecision becomes that of regret, and it doesn’t go away.

I will forever be haunted by that innocent child in the grocery store, wondering where he is, and at the same time, who I failed to be. I think, in the twilight of his life, that Joe Paterno must have been haunted too. What at first seemed like a glancing blow likely turned into a fatal wound.

Doctors can try to treat cancer, but they can’t diagnose a broken heart.

If you would like to give a voice to an innocent child, please go to Casa for Children or to the Tennyson Center for Children. Photo

Guest blogger Stacie is a married mother of three animated (as in cartoonish) children living in the sunny suburbs of Denver. When she’s not blogging at Gemini Girl in a Random World, she stalks people in her ginormous SUV who text while driving. So if you’re gonna be on I-25 anytime soon, look out.