According to my husband I have an over-sensitive nose. He is right — I have a strong sense of smell and I really like our home to smell good. I’ve tested out many (too many) diffusers over the years and recently found these absolutely awesome ones from Archipelago Botanicals. The smell is not overpowering but it doesn’t disappear after a day either. We have Mango Mandarin in our living room and I love, love, love it. (Did I mention I love it?)

$35 from Archipelago-usa.com .

What’s better than a Mother’s Day sale? A Mother’s Day sale that coincides with a Friends & Family (read: coupon) event! If that’s not an excuse to buy yourself something pretty, I don’t know what is.

So through May 4th, 2009, at Macy’s, you can check out everything that’s already on sale, and then use coupon code MACYSFRIEND to take an additional 25% off your purchase (10% on items like furniture and electronics). Shipping is free on your $99+ purchase, too.

You can shop for gifts or shop for yourself; either way, you’ll be getting a bargain.

There are few things more cumbersome to carry around than a carseat. When you’ve got more than one child, several suitcases, and a diaper bag — and only two hands — things can get really stressful. The Air-Porter is a versatile strapping system that lets you attach your carseat (or golf clubs, or guitar, or portable crib, or other cumbersome items) to your rolling suitcase, making it infinitely easier to haul your gear from the parking garage to the gate. It works with pretty much any suitcase with wheels, leaving you with a hand free to corral your kid.

$75 Air-porter.com.

My kids are big fans of They Might Be Giants’ “Here Come the ABCs,” given to us as a gift when our now-4-year-old was a baby, so when I saw “Here Come the 123s” I hoped it would be as fun and funky. And it is. The kids get to sharpen their number skills, and I get to dance around with them to a disco-fueled song about high 5s, a techno-inspired rant about how number 7 eats up all the cake, and a nonogon that likes to party hearty, among other hits. The accompanying videos on this CD/DVD set are great, too.

$12.99 at Amazon.

For more great kids music that won’t make your ears bleed, check out our slideshow: Kids Music Parents Won’t Hate.

With all the email and texting we do, it’s nice to send (and receive!) an actual Thank You card. And these beautiful cards are made from 100% recycled and organic material.

$15 at Inhabitatshop.com .

Like it or not, bathing suit season is nearly upon us! And now through April 23rd, all swimwear at Lands’ End is 25% off! That includes not only suits for the whole family, but shoes and beach towels, too.

Make a good deal great: Use coupon code SWIM with PIN 5084 to ship your entire order for free, too.

(And I’m not telling you what to buy, but I pink-puffy-heart-adore their slender suits. Just sayin’.)

(Also: My kids love their rash guards, and they hold up really well even in chlorine and the Georgia sun.)

(Shutting up, now.)

I got a few of those baby memory books when my daughter was born and they’ve always stressed me out — I feel like some kind of a failure for not being able to keep track of all the milestones they have space for. But I have been pretty good about writing down funny things my daughter has said over the years, albeit often in random notebooks or Post It notes.

Here’s the solution for that: A cute journal to keep track of all the uncanny things your kids say and do it all in one place.

$14.95 at Chroniclebooks.com.

Once upon a time, I was a two-energy-drink-a-day kind of gal, mostly that stuff that promises to “give you wiiiiings.” Those days are long gone — even I can’t handle that much caffeine anymore — but with work and life the way they are, there definitely are days when I need more than just a latte to get my energy levels up.  Jones Soda’s newest offering is a line of tea-juice blends laced with Gamma Aminobutyric Acid (GABA), a naturally produced amino acid thought to boost focus and clarity while decreasing nervousness and distractability. It’s non-carbonated, just slightly sweet, and comes in four great flavors (fuji apple, lemon honey, nectarine, and grapefruit). I think it may be my new go-to drink.

$11.95 for a four-pack (one of each flavor) at Jones GABA.

Our mothers always told us to wait until we had kids of our own — then, they said, we’d really understand. Because I Love Her is a collection of 34 essays edited by Andrea N. Richesin that explore and explain the complex bonds between mothers and daughters. The essays (by writers including Ayun Halliday, Karen Joy Fowler, Susan Wiggs, and others) are deeply personal and powerful, sharing thoughts about motherhood and grandmotherhood and detailing the hopes women have for their children.

$13.95 at Amazon.

Thanks to Outblush for this find: The Passe Partout Clock comes with 12 empty frames that you can fill with anything you like — photos, magazine cutouts, scraps of funky paper or fabric to create your own custom clock.

A fun and relatively inexpensive to create something entirely yours and unique.

$65 at Dutchbydesign.com .