I’m co-hosting a live chat tomorrow with author Rachel Simmons, and I’d love for you to join us!

From her website:
Rachel Simmons is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, and The Curse of the Good Girl: Raising Authentic Girls with Courage and Confidence. As an educator, Rachel works internationally to develop strategies to reduce bullying and empower girls.

The talk will be focused on helping our daughters to discover and embrace the best parts of their authentic selves. It’s a topic I’m passionate about, and I’m sure you are too.

The conversation will take place on Tuesday, January 31 at 12:00 p.m. EST, on TheMotherhood.com.

Hope to “see” you there!

As I’ve been writing about Lands’ End outfits in the last couple of months, I’ve focused on the versatility of their clothing. From the office to kids’ activities to date nights, they’ve got you covered. That goes for holiday parties as well, of course, but like I’ve said before – as women, we’re not likely to buy an outfit that serves only one purpose. We want things we can wear again and again. Here’s an example of an outfit that’s perfect for the Christmas season, but will transfer well to the rest of winter as well.

We’ll start with the Women’s Regular Long Sleeve Cable Turtleneck Dress.

Isn’t it pretty? It also comes in black, but I just love the Rich Red. It’s made from merino wool, which is soft and comfortable (and not scratchy at all). The cable knit adds a lovely design, without being bulky. I love this dress – it really looks and feels great.

It’s a great choice for a Christmas party… you could even add the Tartan Plaid Flower Pin for a little added festiveness (is that a word? Probably not, but you know what I mean. Festivity? Not sure. Anywho…)

But wait!

Want to wear it to the office in January? Belt it and wear black pumps, like in the picture above. Perfect.

OR, you could dress it down slightly and go with this look:

I love this so much, I can’t even describe it.

Put a white No Iron Pinpoint Cotton Shirt underneath…

Add tights, a belt, and slip on the Elizabeth Mid Heel Boot…

And there you go. One dress, three looks.

Love it.

A few weeks ago, we went to Ikea to buy the kids new beds. Ikea is about an hour away from us (you may remember the time Jenny made a plan of action in case I went into labor there) (I’d link to it but it would be a pain to do that on my iPad). Andy was in one car with the long, flat boxes of a jillion pieces of fake wood and a couple allen wrenches, and I was in another car with the kids.

So. We left Ikea and he was going to follow me to a Wendy’s across the street to get the kids a snack, only I couldn’t turn where I thought I could and passed up the Wendy’s, and he got stopped by a red light and was no longer on my tail. No big deal, right? EXCEPT – my cell phone battery was dead. Horror of horrors, I couldn’t call him to say I was going to stop at the next exit.

The only thing we could do was drive home independently, without communicating that whole entire 50-some minutes.

Yes, we both knew we were all headed to our house. Yes, we both knew how to get there. But it was so weird not to be able to touch base.

Of course, I remember the days before cell phones {shudder} and I know we all lived to tell about it. I remember having to, like, set a time and place to meet people. I remember holding up signs in the back window to communicate to friends in the vehicle behind us. But you’ve got to admit – it seems kind of hard to imagine now.

Here’s where I should jump on the whole “We are too dependent on technology these days!” bandwagon and pledge to throw out my cell phone and learn to use smoke signals.

But you know what? I really like being able to call my husband and tell him to meet us at the next Wendy’s down the road. It’s pretty darn convenient, and let’s be real, convenient is good.

Jenny and I held out a long time (in the world of bloggers, at least) before getting smart phones. It was not until last fall that we finally broke down and got Droids. Was it an absolute necessity that we get them? No, of course not. Does it make life easier at times? Yep. And not just so I can check Facebook every few minutes or tweet whenever I have a random thought – but in ways that are convenient and even safer at times. I’ve been in situations a couple times recently that I’ve been completely lost (that is hard for me to admit, as I pride myself on my sense of direction) and I’ve been really, really glad I had my Droid Bionic there with its handy GPS and Google Maps. Like I said, it’s convenient.

Right now I’m sitting in a hotel room using the Bionic’s tethering feature to provide a wifi hotspot for my iPad so I can write this blog post. I could live without it (and I’m sure you could live without this nonsensical drivel) but very handy at the same time.

So, what do you think? Are we too reliant on technology? In what ways does technology make your life easier?

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This post is part of our participation in Verizon Wireless’s Midwest Moms campaign. They are letting us try out the Bionic.