Simplify Magazine 26 Successfully Closed Homes This Year
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DEC 2015/JAN 2016 magazine Simplify 26 Successfully Closed Homes This Year BUYERS Price Range from $785,000-$2,300,000 SELLERS Price Range from $785,000-$1,775,000 Table of Contents CONDOS SINGLE CONDOS SINGLE 4 16 % LOFTS % FAMILY % LOFTS % FAMILY 50 TICS 50 HOMES 50 TICS 50 HOMES www.ggmg.org Letter from the Editor: Marie Kondo and the The Simple Life Modern Mom FAMILIES FAMILIES FIRST FIRST Keeping life manageable Life lessons learned from purging WITH st WITH st % 1 % TIME % 1 % TIME YOUNG YOUNG BOARD OF DIRECTORS Kirsten Pfleger your stuff 61 67 BUYERS 75 75 SELLERS CHILDREN CHILDREN Chair Laurel Kellam Sallie Hess OWNER FIRST Vice Chair Cathy Tran GGMG OCCUPIED GGMG 5 % OFFER % % Secretary Laura Kabler Oswell FAMILIES % & RECEIVED FAMILIES ACCEPTED GGMG GGMG Letter from the Board: 20 50 50 50 GENEROUS 50 Treasurer Kristen McGuire RENT BACKS 2016—Here We Come An Over-Scheduled Life Community Support Tiffany Bindoo Putting survey results to work Finding the balance between too much External Communications Addie Bjornsen and not enough Laurel Kellam & Cathy Tran A heartfelt thank you to the amazing families who entrusted Internal Communications Sallie Hess Jennifer Hofmann me with their home purchases and sales this year. I absolutely Sherri Howe Kids Events Justine Mojica Simpson love working with my fellow GGMG families to help you achieve REALTOR® & GGMG Mom Member Engagement Sasha Fahimi 6 your homeownership goals! As the mom of a 5 year old son, I Laura Kim a.k.a askhowe — look for me Operations 24 truly understand the unique challenges and needs of growing Out and About Parent Education Katrina Dirksen Festive Fun for the Whole Family Simply Connected families with school-aged kids. on the GGMG message boards The three R’s for satisfying friendships Partnerships Nisha Pillai Shaheen Bilgrami 415.640.4664 BRE# 01816621 Technology Sarah Soto Juli Fraga If you are thinking about making a move, or are interested [email protected] Li’l Kid, Big City: Golden Gate Park in learning more about the San Francisco market, call or Stef Tousignant email me today! Many GGMG family references available. The Final Step 28 COMMITTEES Tara Hardesty Services in a Snap TOP PRODUCER 2009-2015 Services to simplify everyday living Community Support Parent Education Whitney Cooley Entrepreneurship Partnerships 8 Just for Moms Playgroups Ask the Expert: Kids Activities PR/Marketing Less Is More 39 Magazine Recruiting Cure your clutter woes I ♥ Mom: Simplifying Through Membership Social Events Laura Harrison Operations Web Team Technology Discretion Tips for keeping technology distractions 10 to a minimum Dadlands: Lynn Perkins MAGAZINE Planning for a “Good Editor-in-Chief Kirsten Pfleger Food Week” Managing Editor Sonya Abrams Simplifying family meals by GGMG at Work Senior Editor Kate Kirschner planning ahead Art Director JoJo Rhee Chevalier 4 Aaron Hardisty Housekeeping Writers Shaheen Bilgrami, Shannon Brennen, Tara Hardesty, Laure Latham, Sarah Lai Stirland, Stef Tousignant 12 5 Copy Editors Amy Ashcroft, Sarah Brandstetter, Emily deGrassi, Volunteer of the Month Anna Gracia, Virginia Green, Catherine Symon, Sandy Woo Books for Kids: Winter and Holidays Advertising Sherri Howe Celebrate winter’s wonders 9 Drives & Contest Designers Jessica Franklin, Molly Parnell, Lora Tomova Laure Latham Photographers Whitney Cooley, Carmen Dunham, Albena Ilieva, Lindsay Lovier, Carolyn Soling 15 14 New Arrivals From Womb to World: Easy Breezy Baby Registry 30 Determining what you really need GGMG Events For information regarding how to advertise in this magazine, contact [email protected]. Shannon Brennen For questions or comments regarding magazine content, 36 contact [email protected]. Committee Updates For questions or comments regarding all other aspects of GGMG, including how to get an event listed in this magazine under Cover Photo by Albena Ilieva Photography; “GGMG Events,” please contact [email protected]. Cover model: Maria Savov Letter from the Editor: Letter from the Board: The Simple Life 2016—Here We Come By Kirsten Pfleger By Laurel Kellam and Cathy Tran hen my daughter my simplicity plan has been much harder than I anticipated. On ow is it December already? It feels like 2015 has flown copyrights. We are working to started page 16, Sallie takes a more methodical approach to de-cluttering by! The board has made many changes this year and we cut operating costs where we preschool, each her home, putting the strategies outlined in Marie Kondo’s The have a strong team in place to help guide GGMG in 2016. can and redirect that money Wnew family was given a copy Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up into practice. HThanks to everyone who participated in our annual survey in into better quality, more of Simplicity Parenting by Kim Simplicity is not just about the stuff in your home. Keeping our October. Your feedback has been invaluable to the board as we thoughtfully curated events John Payne. Although I found schedule simple is a difficult task for many of us, especially this plan for the upcoming year and figure out how best to meet and partnerships for all the book a bit repetitive time of year. Holiday parties are fun. Shopping for gifts takes member needs. We saw some common themes in your feedback members. Your survey (ironic for a book on keeping time. If you are going to visit family, just planning the travel can and wanted to give a little more detail on how GGMG runs and feedback will help us it simple), the overarching take hours. On page 20, Jennifer looks into how some families where we’re heading in 2016. re-prioritize our efforts. Teresa O’Brien Photography Teresa message was one that manage their schedules. Sometimes, the bloating of our schedule First off, BigTent: it’s the platform we currently use to host our Lastly, we’ve built up and Kirsten lives in the Castro with her husband, Karl, resonates with me. Giving occurs in an attempt to maintain relationships. We say yes to an forums and manage our member database. We know it’s not the continue to build such an Laurel and Cathy are the Chair and Vice Chair of and their daughters Serenity (4) and Sierra (2), children fewer toys, fewer event we don’t have time for because we feel guilty about how most user-friendly site, but we don’t run or own it and are amazing community of moms GGMG. They have been volunteering since 2011 and where she tries to instill a love of art while banning activities, fewer choices can long it has been since we saw the host. Juli tells us her three R’s therefore often unable to fix some of its more frustrating features. who all contributed to our 2012 respectively and previously both served on glitter from the house. the GGMG Membership Committee before make it easier for them to for maintaining relationships while still keeping time for yourself The good news is that we are working on a new GGMG site. It will organization in a host of joining the board. fully experience what they have. I see this in practice at our house on page 24. And on page 39, Lynn talks about how she uses address many of the issues you’ve had with BigTent and we are ways. Last year we decided to all of the time. When all of their puzzle and board game boxes are technology to create time with her family. very excited to take our organization into the 21st century! extend membership to mothers of children up to 12 years old. As easily accessible, they don’t play with any of them. As soon as I Getting food on the table is probably one of the least simple Among its issues, BigTent has no way for us to limit member we bring more moms with older children in the GGMG community, put most of them in a closet, the couple left are in high demand. things in my life. I appreciate Aaron’s approach to creating a access to certain forums. This is a big reason why we do not we are working to provide discounts and events that would After reading the book, I went through the girls’ toys and books “good food week” on page 10. As someone who runs to the store currently allow men in our group. Many and moved many of them out of circulation. I was feeling pretty in the middle of cooking dinner more often than I like to admit, members have stated they would be We are working to cut operating costs where we can and the idea of having food planned for the week, the shopping comfortable with men joining GGMG if there redirect that money into better quality, more thoughtfully Giving children fewer toys, fewer activities, completed, and the prep started on Sunday night sounds like was a separate, female-only forum. We can’t utopia. offer that with BigTent’s infrastructure, but curated events and partnerships for all members. fewer choices can make it easier for them A good friend of mine is expecting her first child in the spring. I it is on our radar for the future. interest and be of use to older children and their parents. More to to fully experience what they have. passed my copy of Simplicity Parenting on to her this weekend. We are always amazed at how every single facet of GGMG is come on that in early 2016! Not because I have mastered the topic by any means, but in the organized or managed by mom volunteers. Though we are an The board is working hard to make GGMG the best it can be, and proud of myself, but ran into an unexpected hurdle—my husband.