Never Underestimate an Emergency READY.GOV/MYPLAN

Disclosure: This post IS being shared AS PART OF a Bloggin' Mamas Social Good campaign. Social Good campaigns are voluntary campaigns in which the blogger shares the post for no monetary compensation.

HolaHolaHola Beautifuls!

Do you remember where you were when Hurricane Andrew hit Florida? BB was in her house with esposo #2 and The Trio. Thankfully La Tata was in a hospital recovering from an operation and wasn’t staying with us at the moment. Why does Babushka say thankfully? Because it was scary enough having to be brave and calm for my children, but hurricane preparedness wasn’t taken that seriously back then, and there was no way BB would have known what to do about someone with a medical condition or disability. Through the double edged sword that was Andrew we’ve all learned to take emergencies more serious and are hopefully better prepared.

http://www.ready.gov/individuals-access-functional-needs.

"While each person’s abilities and needs vary, every individual can take steps to prepare for all types of emergencies. By evaluating your own individual needs and making an emergency plan that fits those needs, you and your loved ones can be better prepared. Some items to consider:

What medical devices or assistive technology devices you need to have with you if there is an evacuation order from local officials
Your plans to remain independent if you require oxygen or mechanical ventilation
Practice your plan with your support network, just like you would a fire drill.
Discuss your needs and/or the needs of a family member; learn about their assistance requirements or the services they depend on.
Advocate including people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs into emergency planning in your community.

All of these questions and more are covered in the free guide available for download here: http://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/90360

"We Prepare Every Day" PSA Info:

Created pro-bono by Free Range Studios, “We Prepare Every Day” shows whole community and individual emergency and disaster preparedness as a part of everyday planning. One of the goals of the PSA is to encourage all Americans to “Be Informed, Make a Plan, Build a Kit, and Get Involved.” Resources and guidelines on how to do this can be found at Ready.gov/MyPlan.

Be Informed
First, you need to be informed about potential emergencies and disasters where you live, work, or visit. Then, you can go about making a plan that fits you and your loved ones.

Make a Plan
Making a family emergency communication plan with your friends and family before a disaster occurs is important. Why? Because it will help you answer questions: how will you get in touch with each other? How will your family get to a safe place? It's important to make a plan now so that you will know where to meet, how to find each other following a disaster, and how to communicate in an emergency that works for your family’s specific communication needs.

Build a Kit
While each person’s abilities and needs vary, everyone can take steps to prepare for all types of emergencies. By evaluating your own individual needs and making an emergency plan that fits those needs, you and your loved ones can be better prepared. For example, if being without access to medications, help, or other services you need to maintain your health, safety and independence for even a couple of hours or days could be devastating, and you need to be prepared more than ever.

Get Involved
People with disabilities are encouraged to take a seat at their community and local government- level planning tables. Planning for emergencies and disasters with people who have disabilities and others with access and functional needs rather than planning for them will allow us to understand and address the needs of the whole community in a disaster.



Some more Links & Resources:
Learn how to create evacuation and emergency communication plans: www.ready.gov/make-a-plan
Download printable family communications plans for your children here: http://www.ready.gov/kids/make-a-plan
Resources about natural disasters in your area:
Ready.gov/Prepare has information about natural disasters including Hurricanes, Floods, Earthquakes, Tornados, Wildfires and Winter Storms as well as tips about how to prepare."


There’s some excelente information there Beautifuls. Also keep in mind that those links may take you to great sites, but maybe you should print some out now while you still can. Oh Si, BB get caught again unprepared? JU SO FONII!!!

BB2U 

Cuidensen.

#BlogginMamas #Charity Pre- #MothersDay @CarnivalCruise Brunch w/ @EFPClean & #BloggerOpps

HolaHolaHola My Beautifuls!!

As VP of Bloggin' Mamas , BB's gone to many events and helped many people, but this next one has to be one of my proudest. With the help of  Ecos and +Carnival we will be sharing a brunch that celebrates Motherhood. Earth Friendly products that keep us healthy and a giving fund for those that sadly are not so healthy; these are perfect partners for this special event. It's all about caring, and doesn't that just describe Madres Perfectly? If interested in joining, please write to info@blogginmamas.com .

And to continue on that caring thread- 

"Blog­gin’ Mamas would like to sup­port the Ad Coun­cil and Keep Amer­ica Beau­ti­ful, the national non­profit orga­ni­za­tion, which recently launched the newest phase of the “I Want to Be Recy­cled” pub­lic ser­vice adver­tis­ing cam­paign. The PSA cam­paign aims to raise aware­ness and inspire indi­vid­u­als to recy­cle more with the lat­est series of ads focused on recy­cling in the bathroom."

If you'd like to help in this campaign, go to: http://blogginmamas.com/archives/12112

Next- Besides it being the law, it's the right thing to do for our children.

"Blog­gin’ Mamas would like to sup­port the Ad Coun­cil and The U.S. Depart­ment of Transportation’s National High­way Traf­fic Safety Admin­is­tra­tion (NHTSA)  with pro­mot­ing the Seat Belt Safety cam­paign, which asks par­ents of chil­dren ages 8–14 to make sure their kids are con­sis­tently and prop­erly wear­ing their seat belt every time they get in the car."

Sign Ups for this campaign- http://blogginmamas.com/archives/12104

So you see My Beautifuls, this post is all about the giving.  

Oh, one more Bloggin' Mamas opportunity to give.

The complete set of Little House on the Prairie- including the book that started it all.

http://bohemianbabushka.bbabushka.com/2015/03/little-house-on-prairie-is-back-prize.html

Here's hoping you join us in these opportunities, because

there's GUSTO in the GIVING.

BB2U

p.s.  Special shoutout y Gracias to Shirley Tong de Expedia Cruiseships Center 

for helping put the Cruise Brunch together.

HSF- Hispanic Scholarship Fund #HSFChat #HablaconHSF

Disclaimer: This is part of a sponsored collaboration with Latina Mom Bloggers. 
 All opinions are 100% Babushka.

HolaHolaHola My Beautifuls!

There she is, my eldest, Babushkas Bebe. In 2008 she received her BA, and we were so proud of her!!  By this time her son had already been born and she had gone back to school to finish her degree. As a single mother, BB had sacrificed to make sure The Trio had their college covered- wish I had known about the Hispanic Scholarship Fund back in the day!!



The Hispanic Scholarship Fund, besides helping with scholarships, helps parents navigate the confusing take of college applications and guides with resources and valuable information needed before,during,and after graduation. HSF.net  for more detailed information.

Founded in 1975, but who knew?? Bueno Beautifuls, now YOU know.

BB for one will go and see what's available for My Little One who's finishing her 2nd year of college.  For sure HSF will know more about it than Babushka and any help in our children's future is always welcomed, correcto??  They look for us for guidance; it's nice to know there's a place parents can go for guidance too. A great place to start is @HSFnews  "Getting Ready for College" tips #HSFchat  Also, http://hsf.net/en/resources/parents/

OJO Beautifuls. Although the official scholarship season runs from Jan 1 - Mar 30, take advantage of school recess and begin the application process. Create a profile on HSF.net, que eso Santi Clo can't put into your stocking.

BB2U

P.S. Hispanic Scholarship Fund on Feibu 

en Tweety: @HSFNews

National Brush Day- #Natlbrushday #2min2x A PSA w/a #Giveaway $100Amazon GC

Sponsored

HolaHolaHola My Beautifuls!!

After having no one show up for candy last night 

BB & Sweetie sacrificed themselves and ate up all the caramelo. 

Quee?? Throw it away??  JUSOFONII!!!  

Needless to say, this campaign is ingenious and with perfecto timing. 

 Go ahead and enter- Babushka's going to brush her teeth again.

" Bloggin' Mamas is supporting the Ad Council and The Partnership for Healthy Mouths, Healthy Lives (a coalition of more than 35 leading dental health organizations) by sharing the word about “National Brush Day.”

National Brush Day is observed on November 1^st, the day after Halloween, to reinforce the importance of children’s oral health and to promote good tooth-brushing habits recommended by dental experts.

More than 51 million school hours are lost each year due to dental related illness, resulting in parents losing 25 million work hours annually. Cavities and oral infections can cause severe pain and can increase a child’s risk for dental issues and poor health throughout their lives.

3 in 4 parents report that their kids sometimes or frequently forget to brush their teeth, according to a national survey just released by the Ad Council. In an effort to help parents better understand why ignoring dental health can have serious consequences, and educate families about good dental health habits, the Ad Council and The Partnership for Healthy Mouths, Healthy Lives created new Public Service Ads (PSAs) for their Kids’ Healthy Mouths campaign. The new PSAs are humorous depictions of life lessons which make the point that while parenting can be tricky at times, getting kids to brush for two minutes, twice a day can be easier than most other things parents will try to teach their children.

Visit 2min2x.org (which is available in English and Spanish, and includes a mobile version), where parents and children can watch entertaining videos—all 2 minutes in length—while brushing their teeth.

Resources

o Here are some new PSA videos: http://2min2x.org/campaign-materials/;

• Dressing Lesson: http://youtu.be/LdJkCGzSMyY
;
• Manners Lesson: http://youtu.be/QmOuAKCSOwQ
;
• Bike Lesson: http://youtu.be/WP-hhieRKG0
;
• Cooking Lesson: http://youtu.be/SxNkXbDq58k
;

o Fun 2-minute videos that will keep your kids brushing for 2 whole minutes:
http://2min2x.org/watch-brush/;

o Take the 2min2x Text Challenge with your kids!
75% of kids forget to brush their teeth. Take the brushing challenge to make sure your kids are always in the healthy 25%. You’ll get 2 texts per day for 5 days, plus occasional tips and fun facts afterward. Sign up to see if YOUR family can beat the challenge. (http://2min2x.org/sms.asp;)

o Make brushing fun with the free Toothsavers App: http://2min2x.org/toothsavers/;

o Promote or enter the Zooppa.com video contest for a chance to win $20,000: In addition to the new PSAs, the campaign will be kicking off its first video contest called #BrushRules leveraging Zooppa.com, the world’s leading crowd sourced marketing platform for producing creative content. Parenting is hard to do. Getting your kids to brush their teeth for two minutes, twice a day is one aspect that’s easier and can make a big impact on a child’s life.

The Giveaway

Give­away begins November 1st, 2014 at 12:01 am and ends November 1st, 2014 at 11:59 pm EST. Open to US res­i­dents age 18 and older. Win­ner will be selected by Random.org and be noti­fied by email. See Raf­fle­copter wid­get below for full terms & conditions."

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Buena Suerte & Buena Brushing Beautifuls!!

BB2U

Dis­clo­sure: I am sharing this post on behalf of Bloggin' Mamas. Blog­gin’ Mamas is host­ing this give­away and coor­di­nat­ing prize ful­fill­ment. Ele­ment Asso­ciates, The Ad Coun­cil and the The Partnership for Healthy Mouths, Healthy Lives are in no way respon­si­ble for the give­away, and only pro­vided the above con­tent to be dis­trib­uted in the form of a PSA.

May is #StrokeMonth- and by the time you finish reading this, someone's had one.

A Public Service Announcement on behalf of Bloggin' Mamas ,the Ad Council and the

HolaHolaHola My Beautifuls!!!

May I help you???

It seems like the month of May has so many highlights and importance in Babushka's life. Of course there's Mother's Day, it's also National Mental Health Awareness Month and we all know how that's touched BB's life. It's also American Stroke Month and that too has significance.

Less than a year ago mi querida MIL had a stroke. Luckily she was a nurse, on duty when she had the stroke and they recognized the signs immediately. Thanks to that and being of good German stock, she is doing well. But would we have been able to help someone- even ourselves if we had witnessed a stroke? The above mentioned bullet points are pretty scary- especially the fact that "Stroke is the No. 1 preventable cause of disability".

Facts about Strokes:

• Someone in the U.S. has a stroke about once every 40 seconds.

• Stroke is the No. 4 cause of death overall, killing more than 129,000 people a year. 

Stroke is the No. 3 cause of death for women and No. 5 cause of death for men.

• Stroke is the No. 1 preventable cause of disability.
• About 795,000 people have a stroke every year.
• An estimated 6.8 million Americans 20 and older have had a stroke.

"The American Heart Association/American Stroke Association and the Ad Council to raise awareness about F.A.S.T—an acronym used to recognize a stroke and what to do in a stroke emergency. 

F.A.S.T. stands for:

• F - Face Drooping - Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile. 

• A - Arm Weakness - Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward? 

• S - Speech Difficulty - Is speech slurred? Are they unable to speak, or are they hard to understand? Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence like: “The sky is blue.” Is the sentence repeated correctly? 

• T- Time to call 9-1-1 - If the person shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 9-1-1 and get them to the hospital immediately.

When you recognize a stroke and immediately call 9-1-1, the person has a greater chance of getting to an appropriate hospital quickly and being assessed for treatment options like a clot-busting drug and other medical devices. But many people do not know the warning signs of a stroke – information that may save a life."

Stroke Warning Sign Knowledge and Treatment:

• One in three Americans can’t recall any stroke warning signs.

• According to a survey, Hispanic women are less likely than others to know most of the warning signs of a stroke – 25% did not know any, compared to 18% for whites and 19% for African Americans.

• In a study of patients who had experienced a stroke, someone other than the patient made the decision to seek treatment in 66% of the cases, or every two in three.

So there you have it My Beautifuls- the importance of May.  

And the importance of recognizing the signs of a stroke.

May you never have to use it.

BB2U

#7DaysofSpringCleaning with Goodwill and the Bloggin' Mamas

This post has not been monetarily compensated. 

Consider this a PSA by the Ad Council and the Bloggin Mamas Collective, with insights a la BB.

HolaHolaHola My Beautifuls!!!

It’s time for Spring; Primavera, time for all things new! Of course our first impulse is to go out shopping, but this year, before we get that new Spring wardrobe, let’s do some Spring cleaning. Quee?? JU SO FONII !!! Ok si, BB suggest cleaning?? Bueno, are living spaces can only take so much, and besides, we get to help out our community too!  So vieron? A Babushka Twofer!! And to make it a tad better, Goodwill has come up with a fun and insightful little quiz called:

What’s Your Clothing Personality??

Really inspired now? 
 It’s not hard to declutter when you’re focused and have a plan. 
 Here’s a suggestion on how just 7 days can make that fresh start easier.

#7DaysofSpringCleaning Details:

Day 1) Clear your closet clutter (gotta be able to open it first)

Day 2) Time to tackle la cocina/kitchen

Day 3) Spread holiday cheer (holiday decorations, center pieces, Halloween)

Day 4) Downsize your tech toys (used laptops)

Day 5) Clean out your office supplies

Day 6) Provide quality entertainment (unused movies, video games)

Day 7) Downsize your bookshelf

Then, calcula your donaciones impact. https://donate.goodwill.org/ y feel better about your efforts. Tambien, you can go to http://www.goodwill.org/locator/ which shows how your donation helps your communidad. ESO!!! Ahora you can go and get yourself that new outfit to welcome Spring.

; )

Oh, and if you were wondering what Babushka's Clothing Personality was...

This has been part of the Donate Stuff. Create Jobs. It’s the tagline of Ad Council’s campaign with Goodwill®, which reminds people that their donations support people who are seeking to earn jobs and build careers. To see how the process works, just watch “How We Do It” PSA.

BB2U

Enroll America - PSA- Take Care People!

HolaHolaHola My Beautifuls!!

How cutisimo was that video verdad?  You know what's not so cutisimo and also verdad?

1 in 6 Americans don't have insurance-
1 in 5 African Americans are uninsured as are 1 in 4 Hispanics.
  More than 1/2 of the uninsured could find insurance for under $100 a month.

For those under the age of 35 it can even be under $50 a month!

BB's working con el Ad Council and Get Covered America 

to raise awareness about the Health Insurance Marketplace and the financial assistance available.

Many of you may be unaware of your health plan options or the March 31st deadline to enroll in subsidized healthcare.

Vayan and visit http://www.getcoveredamerica.org to learn more.

Also, I will be participating in a Twitter Chat Tuesday March 11th from 1p-2p EST via 

#TakeCareChat 

You can join in to learn more about Get Covered America and your options under the ACA.
In case you miss that one, there will another one on March 18th from 1p-2p EST as well. 



Disclosure: 

Babushka is a Tweety Chat Consultant for Bloggin’ Mamas who is working with Element Associates, Get Covered America and the Ad Council for this campaign and will receive compensation.

See ya at the Tweety Chat My Beautifuls!!

BB2U