If you’re stuck in a teacher gifting rut, check out this chat, complete with inspiring photos and links.

I’m pleased to announce our June selection, The Singles. I have read a lot of light/fun novels recently and this is one of my favorites.

The Singles is told from different voices, the bride opens the story but it’s told by the people to attend the wedding as a ‘single’. As the story goes on we learn how the singles know the bride and groom, their relationships, insecurities, and more. It’s a very fun look at an evening (and the morning after).

A great summer selection!

Synopsis: Bee wanted the perfect wedding; she got the “Singles”

Back in her single days—before she met the man of her dreams—Beth “Bee” Evans hated being forced to attend weddings solo. Determined to spare her friends the same humiliation, she invites everyone on her list with a guest. Much to her chagrin, however, Hannah, Vicki, Rob, Joe, and Nancy insist upon attending Bee’s lavish Chesapeake Bay nuptials alone. The frustrated bride dubs them the “Minus-Ones” and their collective decision wreaks unintended havoc on her otherwise perfectly planned wedding weekend.

When: June 20th at 8PM EST
Call in details: 724-444-7444, call id: 90383#, Pin 1#

Giveaway: To enter this month’s giveaway, send an email (comments are not considered entries) to mari.partyka [at] gmail.com. Put ‘The Singles’ in the subject line. Please include your shipping address in the body of your message.

Winners will be selected at random on Sunday evening, May 20th.

Steve didn’t really understand my obsession with our cardinal visitor, until he saw the photos. (I had a hard time deciding which I liked best – but out of 50ish photos, there were my four favorites).

This episode is sponsored by Sleep Number. To find a Sleep Number store near you, call 1-800-995-4177. And please, be sure to tell them the Manic Mommies sent you.

Manic Mommies is supported in part by Audible.com. Visit AudibleTrial.com/ManicMommies for your free 30-day trial and download. Check out our Pinterest board for recommendations.

Links mentioned: Time Magazine article | Huffington Post | Long Commutes | Bake Sale Ban

Listen: iTunes | Zune | mp3

• Change the sheets on our bed (they feel so grimy)
• Restore order to our bedroom which has “thrown up” piles of clean clothing
• Start the laundry that has continued to pile up in the baskets
• Mix this week’s show
• Sort through the pile of permission slips and other papers
• Clean my mom-cave which has exploded in a pile of CDs, plastic bags, and other detritus of my life
• Unload weeks worth of photos from my camera’s memory card so I can transfer the card to my new camera (thank you Steve)
• Sort through my unread e-mails (both work and personal)
• Write a blog post for Real Simple
• Write a blog post for Manic Mommies

I also want to bring the kids to a local park for a bike ride (while I run) and, because I’m going to be forcing my dear husband to start running with me, I am planning on dragging him to Marathon Sports to buy him a new pair of sneakers.

Happy Mother’s Day – What do you have planned!

Silver Dollar Banana Blueberry Pancakes
Makes thirty 2-inch pancakes, 4 to 5 servings

For family members who may be intimidated by a new recipe, we have two helpful hints for streamlining the prep: (1) Measure out the dry ingredients the night before for easier assembly in the morning, and (2) Make half a batch.

1½ cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/3 cup quick-cooking oats
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs, beaten
1½ cups 1% low-fat milk
1 ripe banana, mashed (about 1/2 cup)
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (plus more for topping)
1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries (I used frozen wild blueberries)

1. Whisk together the flour, wheat germ, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, banana, and maple syrup until blended. Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just moistened. Stir in the blueberries.

3. Lightly oil or coat a large nonstick skillet or griddle with nonstick cooking spray and heat over medium-high heat.  Pour the batter onto the skillet using a 1/8-cup measuring cup (equal to 2 tablespoons), forming 2-inch pancakes.  Adjust the heat if the skillet gets too hot.

4. Cook until bubbles begin to appear on the surface of the pancakes and the bottoms turn golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes.  Flip and cook until the other side is golden, an additional 2 to 3 minutes.  Repeat with the remaining cooking spray and batter. Top with additional maple syrup as desired.

Nutrition Information per Serving: 380 calories, 9g fat (2.0g saturated), 460mg sodium, 61g carbohydrate, 4g fiber, 14g protein

Happy Mother’s Day to all of our Manic Mommies friends

Janice Newell Bissex, MS, RD and Liz Weiss, MS, RD are The Meal Makeover Moms, and together, they’re on a mission to help busy families eat better. For more recipes, check out their new cookbook, No Whine with Dinner. You can also read their blog, Meal Makeover Moms’ Kitchen or listen to their weekly podcast, Cooking with the Moms.

I went online to find the clip of Kristen Wiig mocking the “tanorexic” mom accused of bringing her daughter to the tanning salon. But I stayed, and laughed myself silly at their spoof Amazon Mother’s Day ad.

I had a plan and, I thought, it was a good one. I had signed up for my two triathlons – SheRox in August and Title 9 in September – and had started my training. I visited the gym four times in the last two weeks, logging laps in the pool followed by miles on the craziest stationary bike I had ever seen. After a few runs with my terrible sneakers, I had been fitted for a pair of sneakers at Marathon Sports, and received a new pair of Adrenaline GTS 12 from Brooks Running.

A pair of sneakers I had, before today, run in exactly once. Yesterday.

And I felt good. I was pleasantly surprised by my fitness level. The swimming was better once I bought a pair of goggles, and the running/walking was better once I started using the Ease into 5K app.

I was feeling so good, I even signed up for a 5K and Kids Fun Run at Gillette Stadium this July which raises money for our local YMCA.

But then, Friday night, Steve started encouraging me to give Sunday’s Sudbury triathlon a try. With an 8 lap pool swim (slightly under 1/4 mile) and shorter distances than the standard sprint triathlon (7 mile bike ride, 2.3 mile run) he was confident that I’d do well, and thought it would give me a good baseline for the rest of my training.

It was hard to refuse such enthusiasm.

So, after signing the kids in for their triathlon, I registered and picked up my number – 486 out of 500. And immediately started to think about the fact that I had clearly lost my mind.

Seriously, who is this person that, on a whim, signs up for a triathlon? Who was obsessively reading Runner’s World before going to bed? Who decided that, instead of sleeping in on weekends, was giving up her coffee, newspaper and Sunday Morning for an early morning swim/bike/run?

But there I was this morning, wearing my crazy tri-suit under my running tights and Bobolink trainer, throwing the kids (and their games, blankets and pillow pets) into the Equinox at 6:30 am.

After waiting almost 2.5 hours to enter the pool – it turns out a pool start makes for a very slow event – I was off. And while I don’t know where I came in, or what my times were, I felt great.

Not surprisingly, my favorite leg was the bicycle, with one rider exclaiming that I had “woken him up” when I passed him and I was “really good.” The swim wasn’t terrible, and I had a personal best run, extending my running intervals to 5-7 minute stretches.

But you know what was really great about it? The people.

Everyone I met was so friendly and encouraging. The athletes came in all shapes, sizes, abilities, experience and ages with some wearing top of the line gear (including several time trial helmets) and others on bikes that had seen better days. And everyone was so encouraging – personally, I’d like to thank the woman behind me at the beginning of the run who kicked me into gear with her cheer of “you can do it.”

While I was impressed by everyone I met, the person who will leave a lasting impression on me was the 75 year old woman who, when asked what her secret was responded “Sex. Sports. Sleep.”

Can’t argue with that.

PS. Thank you to everyone for your advice and words of encouragement. You make me feel like a rock star. Or a triathlete.

There are endless smoothie recipes on the web. Here’s the Jamba Juice Banana Berry Smoothie recipe, which is a reported 457 calories and 1.8g of fat. I’ve never used apple juice in a smoothie before (or sherbet for that matter) but I might have to give it a try.

1/2 cup apple juice
3/4 cup strawberry nectar
1 cup frozen blueberries
1 banana
1 scoop of raspberry sherbet
1scoop of fat-free vanilla yogurt
1 cup of ice

Put in a blender and turn it on. Makes 24 ounces.

My week continued that way, confirming that I haven’t fully adjusted my expectations to align with my new reality. You see, Manic Mommies listeners and friends, I have a new appreciation for what many of you have been dealing with in the years I was “SO BUSY” running my own business from home.

While I thought I was busy then, it was nothing compared to the busy I feel now. It’s amazing how much one can get done in 2.5 hours a day: the time I now spend listening to audio books, podcasts and NPR in the car. But you all knew that, right? You all said I was crazy to take on this commute. You all said “WHAT? WHY?”

What I do know, is that this week alone, I really felt manic. In ways that I must admit, I haven’t felt since I was working and had a toddler and baby at home. And even then I had Fridays off.

Here’s a run down of manic moments from this week. If I can remember them in order:

Monday: OK, I can’t remember but I’m sure it had to do with not having any hosiery to wear with a dress to work.

Tuesday: Had a 9am focus group and not enough gas to make it Syracuse. Forgot to stop on the Thruway because I was engrossed in Anna Quindlen’s audio memoir “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake.” Pulled off the highway into downtown when I spotted a gas station and then got caught in traffic and road construction. Realized I forgot my folder for the focus group on my desk and had no time to return to the office first to retrieve it.

Wednesday: Couldn’t take the gray roots any longer and called my salon to beg for an immediate appointment. You see, I had to cancel my scheduled one two weeks ago because we had Kristin’s family here. My stylist couldn’t see me for another 10 days. When I nearly burst into tears on the phone they said “Amy had a cancellation tonight–you could see her!” I don’t know Amy and I didn’t care. “Yes! I can be there at 6:30,” I said. Then I set the cruise control for 80mph.

Thursday: Worked from home and spoke at son’s school for Career Day. Try explaining PR to a bunch of 2nd graders. I think I did a fairly good job of making it sound interesting! Had to get oil changed in car. Also offered to bring boys to baseball practices since I’m usually not around to do that. Confused their practice times and brought one son to his practice half and hour early and the other one to his practice 15 minutes late. This I blame on the husband.

Thursday night after practice: Had to hem three pairs of baseball pants and ran out of white thread about 1 inch too soon. Good enough I said.

Friday: Switched cars for my commute because the one I usually drive was, surprise, out of gas and I didn’t want to stop. Forgot to retrieve my campus parking pass so parked in a different lot and nearly got a ticket. Around 4pm I decide to pack up because Brendan had his first travel baseball game on the west side of Rochester (about 1.5 hours from Syracuse) when I get a frantic call from home that Brendan’s bat bag and all his gear is in my car.

I sprint out of the office and leave my prescription sunglasses on my desk.

Saturday: Today’s list of activities and chores is long. There’s lots of baseball on the schedule and we have no bread, milk, or coffee in the house. But I’m glad I won’t have to drive very far to do any of it.