There are many relief organizations take donations. Here are two credible options:

• You can send a $10 Donation to the American Red Cross by Texting "Haiti" to 90999, or you can visit their website for other donation options.
• You can also send a donation via CARE.org.

Though Jenn started with the intention of having just one show a year in 2007, her shows were so successful she's now hosting five shows in five cities. We caught up with Jenn to hear a bit more about her business...

Mom Invented®: Have there been any big surprises for you with your business?
Jenn Kampmeier: During our first show one of the attendees went into labor! We quickly called the ambulance and she delivered her baby safely about 6 hours later. That attendee has since had another child and has attended every show that we have produced.

What has excited you the most about what you’ve created?
I have the wonderful opportunity to work with moms and dads that are creating very unique items for the juvenile industry. Many of our exhibitors have gone on to have their items sold in major retailers. That is very exciting to hear.

How important has business planning been for your success?
The very first thing I did was create a business plan.  I had to make sure that the business made sense both logically and financially.  Since 2007 I have made tweaks to the original plan but for the most part it is the same.  It keeps me on the path that I envisioned for my company three years ago.

Special Note: Our new book is coming out next week and it's all about business planning. Order your advance copy now!

What advice do you have for other moms starting businesses?
Work smarter and not harder.  Decide what you are good at and then outsource the rest. The time that you will save will be valuable and ROI will larger.

Thanks for sharing your story, Jenn! To learn more about Bebe Paluzza and get information on upcoming trade shows, visit our Maternity, Baby and Toddler Expo page.

Over the years, we’ve featured many amazing mom inventors and some of them have created great gift items for your children, family and friends. Here we’re highlighting some of our favorites so you can consciously support mom inventors and entrepreneurs this holiday season.

For Family

Hello World Clothing Company Sleepers
These stylish and practical kids' sleepers unzip at both the top and bottom to make nighttime diaper changes easier for parents. A great gift for young kids and their parents.
Hello World is a sponsor listed in our Resources Guide

How Fast Time Flies scrapbooks
A perfect gift for grandparents and other family, How Fast Time Flies (formerly How Fast They Grow) lets you create beautiful scrapbooks of your photos. With this great tool, sending out a family photo album could become a yearly tradition.

The Shade Wagon
For families that love the outdoors, The Shade Wagon includes a cooler, seating area, table, umbrella and much more to make camping, soccer games, beach days and other outdoor activities more manageable for families.

For Friends

Card Cubby
This great little organizational product that comes in many colors and styles is perfect for helping keep track of gift cards, coupons, business cards and more, and fits easily in a purse, briefcase or glove compartment.

Chesapeake Bay Candles
These beautiful and elegant candles with sophisticated fragrances are perfect to have on hand for hostess gifts and gift exchanges.

Frame of Mind cards
These inspirational cards and frames provide motivation and help foster positive thoughts.

Grill Charms
The perfect gift for families that like to barbecue, Grill Charms help you identify your different cuts of meat based on how they’ve been cooked or how spicy they are.

LuggageSpotter
A great gift for a frequent traveler, the LuggageSpotter fits over the handle of a bag to provide extra cushioning and style. You can find LuggageSpotters with a wide range of sports logos and other fun designs.

TableTopics
Help jump-start the conversation at any party with these sets of interesting and thought-provoking questions that come in an attractive and modern cube.

For Kids

Fortamajig
Ignite your kids’ imagination and encourage them to play more creatively with this fun and innovative fort-building product that can be configured in countless ways.

Griddly Games
These fun sports and trivia games were created by two Canadian mom entrepreneurs with more than 30 years of experience working with children.

Kidzsack
This award-winning kids' product is a themed, washable backsack that children can color in over and over again. It’s eco-friendly, too -- the fabric is made from recycled cotton and soda bottles.

Kubit2me
These fun games encourage social interaction, sharing and fun, with kids tossing the cube to each other and answering different thought-provoking and sometimes silly questions.

For Teens

Blossom bath and beauty products
These tween-oriented bath and beauty products were developed by a mom entrepreneur and her five girls. Each girl’s personality, from tomboy to spa princess, has its own product line.

Spandees
These funky spandex shorts are great for active teens with a sense of style. They come in many colors and prints.

Tarte Cosmetics
Any girl would love these pretty cosmetics created by mom entrepreneur Maureen Kelly. They’re good for your skin and come in beautiful and trendy packages.

For Mom Invented®

Now that you've found some great gifts for your friends and family, we have three requests:

1. Please shop & share this Mom Invented® Holiday Gift Guide with your friends and family to help support mom inventors -- you can use the ShareThis buttons at the top and bottom of this post to email it, save it, or share it with your social networks and encourage them to join our community by subscribing to our newsletter, becoming a fan on Facebook or following us on Twitter.

2. We will be sending out a similar new small business vendor resource guide in January to our entire community of small business people. If you have a vendor, e.g. , bookkeeper, attorney, prototype designer, factory, graphic or packaging designer, coach, or other important adviser, please recommend they get themselves listed in our resource directory now so they get to be part of this free distribution in January. The vendor will get an extra month for signing up for the resources guide now AND you will get a free 1 month basic listing for any vendors you refer -- just make sure they add your name and email to the sign-up form when they register.

3. List your own product or service in our resources directory. Learn more about signing up today.

Smith was an amazing woman, especially given the time period -- the late 19th and early 20th century.  A single mother supporting two children alone and with only a grade school education, she tirelessly advocated for working women, women inventors, and the poor or less fortunate.  She also worked for public health and safety, demanding basic things we take for granted today, like ingredient lists on product labels. By 1891 she was already credited for fifty bills passed by Congress. These achievements and many more make Smith’s omission from American history shocking, if not tragic. I was touched by her journey and reminded of what a difference a single person can make in spite of her life circumstances.

A note about the author:
Autumn Stanley is an independent scholar in the history of technology and women's history with a particular passion for uncovering women’s contributions. She is also the author of Mothers and Daughters of Invention, where she showed that despite being inventive throughout history, women seldom received credit, with their husbands' or lawyers' names often taking the place of their own. Mothers and Daughters of Invention is what inspired me to put the photograph of the mom inventor on our trademarked Mom Invented® packaging.

Has the issue of "balance" changed over the last decade? Or has our perception of balance changed? Why does it matter?

Whether it is a myth or reality or something else, the discussion of balance has changed. For my doctoral dissertation, "Women in the Executive Office of the President" written a decade ago (1999), I interviewed the highest ranking women in the Clinton White House. Most were the first woman to occupy each of their respective high-level posts. The stories I heard from these women were truly inspiring. And some of the battles they had to fight to get there were infuriating. By being the first, each of these women lead the way and opened the doors for other women to follow. In my interviews with them, challenges and issues around family were raised but the term "balance" was never mentioned as a concern or expectation. Instead, their predominate focus was on producing results.

It was women who came to recognize that despite their achievements, some of the simpler things in life were missing… things they found to be essential to their satisfaction. And if all their work did not produce satisfaction, what was the point? Which seems to have lead to the backlash effect where in some cases the question of -- or actually the quest for -- balance has become almost a religion. And it's one of the main reasons women quit work to start their own businesses.

From my own experience, I relate. Years later, after having two children, launching my business and writing my first book, The Mom Inventors Handbook (2005), I noticed that other columns and articles were being written trying to address a growing frustration and answer the professional women’s question of, "How do I achieve balance?" At that time, I didn't enter the discussion, although I was a living example of trying to juggle it all.

However, by 2006 when the same questions were still being asked with a heightened sense of frustration, I chose to attempt to address the matter by asking the women I interviewed for my second book, Secrets of Millionaire Moms (2007), what I found was a second problem. Yes, some women in business were dissatisfied because they weren't experiencing balance in their lives. However, upon closer examination, the dissatisfaction seemed to be driven as much by a perception as to what balance should look like and the difficulty of achieving this artificial standard.

At the time, I called this notion of balance a myth. Today, a quick scan of the blogosphere reveals that many now support this view. The notion of balance seems to have shifted from the idea that we can and should be able to have a stimulating, fast-rising career or launch a business, an engaged romantic relationship, chair the PTA, and spend quality time with the kids and aging parents, to the idea that balance is mere illusion -- a myth. However, I have another take on the whole discussion.

I am still not comfortable with a simplified explanation -- It is just not a simple issue.

Personally I have found myself on every point in this continuum and cannot claim mastery. Therefore, I don’t expect this discussion to dissipate, but have two suggestions that I now use to help address the issue.

First: Set realistic expectations. There is no objective measure of balance. It is personal. So when you look at the idea of creating a business, or a new project, it is critical to be extremely realistic as to what you will be in for. Launching a business can be the best way possible to create flexibility, freedom, fulfillment, and income. For some that equates to balance. It can also be the best way to create 23 hour, 7-day-a-week workdays, demanding travel and tremendous stress. Do as much research as possible, dispose of all illusions so you understand the reality of your business choice, then only choose a path that fits your own needs.

Second: Plan. Even if you've given your choice adequate consideration, unless you have a well-developed plan, your business can evolve in a way that fails to create your desired experience. While most plans include the requisite objectives of sales, profit and growth, equally important is to incorporate and measure those other elements that reflect your own personal goals.

Even when you set realistic expectations and create a solid plan, there will undoubtedly be times when balance seems unachievable. That may or may not be true. At those moments in my own experience I have sufficed to call the situation "life" and do my best to make short-term adjustments. And, when necessary, sit down and revise my plan.

My 7-year-old daughter is participating in her school's Summer Reading Champions program. The kids read for 15 minutes every day, take an online test about the book, and then log their time. When they return to school there will be a celebration acknowledging their work. But I’d say that the positive results have already happened. In the past, she hasn’t been that interested in reading and only read if it was part of a homework assignment -- never for pleasure. Now she can’t wait to read her books because she’s excited about logging her hours. She beams each day after she completes this task. I love it because she’s reading everyday without me having to coax her -- she's self-motivated and I’m sure the awards ceremony and party at the end are on her mind. Every two weeks we head to our public library and take home about 20 books!

I realize that not all schools have this type of program. However, this is something you can create yourself: Get a stack of age-appropriate books from the kids' section at your library, create a daily (7 days per week) log that they can fill out by themselves, and offer a reward at the end of the summer that your child would enjoy like a trip to the zoo, beach, amusement park… whatever it is that your child would love to do.

Since my 5-year-old is just going into Kindergarten and isn't in the school system yet she couldn’t participate in the reading program. For her, I purchased workbooks from Lakeshore Learning that are age appropriate in both verbal and math skills, and she can’t wait to log her time, too!

Both girls see this work as fun because we make it fun! I’m happy because I can see that they are feeling more and more confident with their skills each day.

With a no-holds-barred approach to all topics mom, Jenna says what a lot of women are thinking, but don't always admit -- and while it's not always pretty, it's all based on her own real-life parenting experience. The mom of two tackles everything from pregnancy's quirks to breast pumps and kids' books with humor. Check out this excerpt on introducing solid foods:

It’s pretty much agreed that as far as food is concerned, babies can get by on breast milk for the first year of life. To me, that’s like saying “women can get by with one purse in perpetuity,” which theoretically, of course, is true, but do I really want to carry a sequined silver evening bag roughly the size of a banana on a day trip to Disneyland? Am I expected to tote my lip-gloss and compact to the Opera (never mind that I don’t go to the Opera) in my hot pink, laminated, moisture and mold-resistant, you-could-fit-a-case-of-diet-Coke-in-it diaper bag? And which of these two options—if I am going to be allowed but one—do I bring to a job interview? On a hiking trip? To a funeral?

Armed with a combination of this obviously sound reasoning and the permission of your pediatrician, you will set about researching the best time and means of introducing solid foods (which frankly aren’t very solid when you start out, but that’s another matter altogether). After considerable googling, you may stumble across this line on a parenting-advice web site: “Mothers often report that they knew their babies were ready when they picked up food from a plate, chewed it, swallowed it, and wanted more.” As readiness-indicators go, I would agree the only thing that could beat that would be if baby tied on her own bib and held up a hand-written recipe for pureed Coq au Vin.

Have you read the book? What did you think? What was your biggest surprise as a parent that books didn't prepare you for?

In this economy, many of us have cut back on purchasing new clothes. However, sometimes a new outfit can lift your spirits, make you feel rejuvenated and give you confidence for that next big meeting. What's a cash-strapped mom to do? Throw a Frock Swap Party.

When my sister answered her cell phone last weekend, I could hear laughter and good cheer in the background. There was energy in the air. Curious, I asked, "Where are you?" With excitement she said, "I'm at a Frock Swap Party!" She explained that a friend hosted a party and invited twenty women. Each woman brought her best clothing that she no longer planned to wear. Twenty large mountains of clothing were put into piles in the living room and the women happily dove in, stripped down, and tried things on. Everyone went home with something new (to them) that they loved! The hostess provided a simple lunch of quiche, salad and wine. A potluck would work well too!

Another friend had a similar party and called it a "Swapping Spree." Have you tried this? What did you call it?

Do you have a great tip? Send it to us or leave it in the comments.

I bring up this point because of a recent experience with my own family -- specifically my daughters, who are 4 and 6 years old. All through dinner one evening they begged me for dessert, and I agreed that we could have chocolate pudding when we finished. So I got them started on the pudding, ran to check a few last-minute emails, and came back 5 minutes later -- and found the girls mixing raisins, milk and other things into the pudding. Surprised, I said, "What are you doing?" My six-year-old then explained exactly what they were doing: "Mom, we're creating our own brand." I almost fell over.

The girls continued their game saying things like, "What should we do about packaging?" and, "How can we make this famous all around the world?" -- with no prompting from me. I was amazed to discover they had picked all this up from conversations between me and my husband, and the creative influence all of this had on them. The game continued for days, as the girls asked me to keep working on their "secret pudding recipe."

So what is my point? Moms, don't be so hard on yourselves. While you may not be around every single minute of the day, you are giving your children other gifts you're hardly aware of until a moment like this -- a creative spirit and confidence to do and try new things. I feel these gifts will continue giving to my girls throughout their lives, creating confident, creative women who know no boundaries.

As for the guilt -- I'm sure it will come creeping back when I least expect it. (It always does.) But at that point, I will remind myself of this story -- and how things are not always so black-and-white.