Probably not unlike many of you, at any given moment, I'm overwhelmed by errands. In addition to the length of my laundry list, I'm short on hours, and also wheels, given that we're a one car family and Jon has the car most weekdays. So I was thrilled to discover the excellence of RUNmyERRAND, a local errand service that recently saved my sanity (and advanced the awesomeness of my office). Read on for more about my experience with RME, as well as to learn how to be one of three winners to receive RUNmyERRAND credits (entry closes January 18):

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UPDATE: RUNmyERRAND is has rebranded and is now known as Task Rabbit.

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RUNmyERRAND is a fee-free online service that connects those overwhelmed by errands with people who want to run them. Simply sign up and purchase credits; these credits are the currency with which runners are paid and reimbursed for goods or services paid for during the errand (alternately you can reimburse for goods or services via cash on delivery). Post your errand details, including how much you are willing to pay for the errand (I recommend looking at the active errand roster to get a sense of going rates for various errands), and an alert is sent to the RME network. Then sit back and wait for runners to contact you about fulfilling the errand. Note that all runners must fill out an application then undergo a phone interview and background check in order to become a part of the runner community. Also, the RME site offers a rating and comments system -- for both runners and errand delegators -- to keep folks accountable.

So here's how RUNmyERRAND saved my sanity. I have been in desperate need of an office overhaul (like, really desperate...I'll be posting the horrendous before pictures once my office is finished). Around Christmas (naturally, the best time to take on new projects...), I decided to do something about it and narrowed in on some desks from IKEA. However, we were just back from Christmas travel and were about to turn around a couple of days later for New Year's travel. The last thing I wanted to do was drive down to IKEA and fight the crowds. And actually, we have a little car so not only would I have to drive and fight the crowds, I'd also have to rent a van or large Zipcar. I just couldn't bear doing any of this. So I figured, okay, I'll pay the exorbitant shipping, but lo, the IKEA desks I wanted were only available in store.

Enter RUNmyERRAND. I decided to give it a try after checking out the site and seeing some other IKEA runs in their active errand roster (and notably, the IKEA runs I saw listed cost less than IKEA shipping). Admittedly, though, I was a little nervous; I'm a bit of a control freak. Was this really going to work? Would the runner pick up the right desks and all the various components that go with it?

However, seeing as I wasn't going to rent a van and head to IKEA myself, I decided to have a little faith. I signed up, posted my errand, and literally within 10 minutes received responses from a couple of runners. Though the first runner didn't yet have a rating (turns out we were each others very first errand), I got a good vibe off his profile picture and decided to go for it. We exchanged a few emails to clarify details and later that day, my very courteous and friendly runner delivered two IKEA desks to my house. All the pieces were there and the desks were in perfect condition when I cracked open the boxes. Utterly convenient. Utterly awesome.

My office is still a work in process but it's already looking pretty spectacular with my two new studio desks set up. As a freelancer, I live and breathe the phrase "time is money." Outsourcing onerous (in my mind) errands that are no big deal to someone else while supporting the local economy? Totally worth it.

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THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED
Congrats to winners Leslie, Marianne, and Dylan!
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Now, want to be one of three winners to receive RUNmyERRAND credits? Here's how:

Visit the RUNmyERRAND errand ideas page, then email contests@bostonmamas.com (with 'RUNmyERRAND' in the subject), and name an errand idea you'd love some help with.

One entry permitted per person; local residents welcome to enter.

Entry period closes at midnight EST, Monday, January 18, 2010.

*Three lucky winners (drawn using Random.org) will receive 26 errand credits.

Today, Paige shares her raves for MiniLuxe:

“Ever since I moved back to Boston from New York, I have searched for a fabulous nail salon. Not a shmancy spa. Not a hair salon that has a great manicurist on staff. An honest-to-goodness nail shop -- the kind you find every three blocks in Manhattan, where you can walk in when the mood strikes and be guaranteed a fabulously groomed set of ten in 30 minutes for less than $20. But with no luck to date, I have had to deal with my gnarly nails and cuticles, except for the occasional weak moment when I’m willing to fork over $40 for a mani at the local spa.
Two weeks ago, I was introduced to MiniLuxe in Lexington by my mama friend Marianne. Four of us girls were looking for a way to celebrate the holidays together and Marianne booked us mani/pedis at this “nail and beauty lounge” -- the only place she could find that would take all of us at the same time. Oh, and it was a Sunday. At 10 a.m.

When I arrived, I knew it was going to be a good experience. MiniLuxe was clean (all tools are sterilized in an autoclave after each use, and files and buffers go home with you), spacious, and pretty, with a wall of OPI and Essie nail colors organized by color and perfectly labeled (for anyone who has searched for a color by turning over every bottle on the shelf, you know how fabulous this is).

Jump to an hour and fifteen minutes later after my nails (all twenty of ‘em) had been scrubbed, filed, buffed, moisturized, massaged, and lacquered for the grand price of $53, and I was sold. It got even better when seven days later (rather than the usual two), my manicure was just starting to show signs of needing a re-polish.

Between the salon’s commitment to hygiene, easy online booking, frequent service card (buy ten, get one free), amazing mom-friendly hours (open seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. most days), and my awesome nail technician Rita, I’ll be visiting MiniLuxe regularly in 2010. Goodbye gnarly nails, hello mini-priced bliss.”

MiniLuxe, 1718 Massachusetts Avenue, Lexington; 339-970-2322. Locations also in Newton Centre (792 Beacon Street) and Back Bay (296 Newbury Street).

One fun by-product of parenting is reliving games of my childhood with Laurel (oddly enough, I’m also looking forward to a second pass at learning math and history when Laurel hits high school…). And often times it’s the simplest and least expensive games and activities that offer so much fodder for fun and creativity.
Yesterday Laurel and I picked up a set of Schylling pick-up sticks at Henry Bear’s Park. Easy on the wallet at $5.99, these wooden sticks come in a wooden box with a sliding lid; great for neat storage and travel. The kit doesn’t come with the rules (which I couldn’t remember, other than trying not to move other sticks when you pick up one) and though we looked them up later, it proved fun to simply wing it and see Laurel make up her own rules, such as trying to get all of one color first (hard) or have us alternate color pairs on our turns (doable but still challenging). Oh, and if you play by the original points system, the game serves as a math exercise.

And then of course there was the fun of not picking up the sticks and instead making name, star burst, and other geometric patterns with the sticks. We pretty much spent most of the afternoon and evening goofing around with these simple little sticks.

So simple, so inexpensive, inspiring so much creativity. I love it.

After a year where I finally and happily made self-care a priority, oh how I love this: The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation is hosting First Day Hikes and First Day Skates to encourage folks to start the New Year on a fit foot. These events are free and family friendly; the hikes will span 16 parks across Massachusetts and the skate sessions will run in South Boston and Jamaica Plain.

New Year’s celebrations take on a different flavor with kids, and we’re fortunate to have a number of family friendly celebrations in the works in and around Boston. Consider these city celebrations -- First Night Boston, First Night Worcester, Beverly’s New Year, and New Year's Needham -- as well as the family New Year’s parties at the Children's Museum in Easton and Children's Museum of New Hampshire.

Image credit: Susan Cole Kelley/First Night Boston

April Paffrath is one of the most devoted foodies I know. No taste is too simple, no ingredient too humble. And when you read her writing, you can tell how much she relishes preparing, tasting, and writing about food. April is a regular contributor here on Boston Mamas, but today I'm thrilled to introduce her via her voice on Wicked Tasty Harvest. For the eleventh installment of my Simplifying the Holidays guest blog series, April shares a highly impacting way to simplify your holidays and beyond: by thinking about local foods and considering a CSA. Included is a primer on local foods and CSAs, as well as a fantastic guide to CSAs in the Boston area.

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From April:

The holidays are a chance to live it up. We have license to battle the encroaching dark with candles, twinkling lights, bubbly, and more food than you thought you could possibly eat (and yet somehow you can). I adore the festive moments when you're eating wonderful food with people you love, raising a glass to the people you're with, the festive spirit of strangers, and the start of a new year. Food-wise, it's so easy to enjoy and simplify your holidays -- and the year ahead -- by thinking about local foods.

Why eat local foods?

Eating locally over the holidays doesn't mean living on potatoes. Even though snow has fallen, there are plenty of local foods that store well into the cold months, or are being grown in greenhouses. (In the plentiful months, it's easy to prep the freshest food and store it in the freezer for amazing food mid-winter.) Also, local pasture-fed meat is available year-round and it makes a huge difference in the flavor of your meals and the environmental impact of your dinner.

When we choose local foods we're doing several important things. We're caring about the quality and tastiness of the food we eat. We're supporting the community we live in and the livelihood of our neighbors. We're acting as stewards of the planet. And we're ensuring the healthiness of the food with which we nourish ourselves and our families.

When food is sourced locally, there's very little time between when it's picked fresh from the field and when it is served up on your dinner table. Nutrients and flavors don't have as much time to degrade as, say, food that was grown across the country and was picked under-ripe to withstand the shipping. It also means that the local farms can grow plant varieties that might not travel well, but which have amazing flavors, wonderful colors, and provide a better taste experience at dinner.

And better tasting produce and meat means you have to do very little to make an outstanding meal; you need little more than good olive oil or good butter and a bit of salt to make everyone at the table ooh and ahh. For your daily dinnertime, that ease of prep with good ingredients saves countless hours.

When you buy food from a farmers' market, a local grocer who stocks local foods, or through a CSA (community-supported agriculture) share, you're making a decision to direct money to your community, your neighbors, and your region. If you keep more money local, you help preserve the diversity of your region, you keep farming from becoming centralized, and you make it easy for your neighbors to stay in their line of work--which in turn keeps them buying locally. It's a very good circle. Does that mean that you need to decide it's all or nothing? No way. By getting what I can from our local providers first, I don't feel conflicted when I do need to shop at national stores.

How do CSAs work?

A CSA works in a pretty simple way. You give money to a farmer in the off-season. With it, the farm buys seeds, repairs equipment, hires farm staff, and prepares the fields before they've even planted or harvested the next year's crops. You are helping them to prepare for the growing season during the time of year when they aren't making money from the crops. Then, when the growing season begins, you get a return on that early investment in the form of a weekly share of veggies. You take on the risk of a bad year (like tomato blight and flooding) as well as the benefit of plentiful harvests.

Vegetable CSAs are the most common, but the Boston area has meat, fish, and grain CSAs, too. A quick Google search will show you local CSAs in your area. Armed with your list, it's easy to look through and see which farms follow the principles you like. It's also helpful to visit the bulletin boards on Chow.com to see what people have to say about their experience the previous year. Did they like the food and the variety? Did it taste good? Did they like how the CSA was run?

Boston-area CSAs

Below is a sampling of just a few of the local CSAs available in our area. The produce ones typically run for 21-27 weeks, and several offer winter CSA shares where you can get veggies stored expertly in their root cellar. The meat and fish CSAs are available year-round and you can sign up for the seasons or quarters you like. For a national list, Google or check out Eat Well Guide. While nowhere near comprehensive, it does provide a small listing of CSAs, stores, and more. It's a good idea to call, email, or explore the websites of the farms you're interested in and ask them questions about how they grow things. Several local farms grow "organically" but they've decided not to pay for certification so they can't technically call themselves organic. It's worth asking about growing practices, chemicals, feed, antibiotics, and more so you can make sure it's a farm whose style you dig.

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[Note: all prices listed below are as of time of posting.]

Siena Farms, Sudbury, MA

Pay $750 for the weekly box share and pick up at Sofra (Farmer Chris' wife is chef Ana Sortun of Oleana and Sofra), or $500 for the market share, which is a discount of 50% at the Copley farmers' market or at their Sudbury farm stand.

I happily renewed my "membership" for next year's box share. The food is amazing and almost unbelievable. It comes to you pristine and glowing and full of flavor. They offer varieties that are grown for their amazing taste. It's no surprise that the city's best restaurants also get their produce from Siena Farms--places like No. 9 Park, O Ya, Beacon Hill Bistro, Craigie on Main, and more. When you prepare the produce from Siena Farms, it tastes amazing, even if you only treat it with a bit of olive oil and salt. Their mesclun is peppery and wonderful--a real highlight!

Chestnut Farms, Hardwick, MA
[Editor's Note 3/6/2011: Direct link removed because McAfee is showing security risks with this website.]

Pick up this meat CSA once a month in several locations, year round (Arlington, Natick, Northhampton, and about 5 more). Prices depend on how much you're getting each month. It starts at $80 and 10lbs a month ($8/lb). It costs less per pound if you get more. A bonus is that CSA shareholders are eligible to sign up for one of their coveted natural turkeys. They raise cows, pigs, sheep, chickens, and turkeys. The pasture animals (like cows and sheep) are pasture-fed as long as the New England weather lets them, and they get hay with occasional grain over the winter.

Red Fire Farm, Granby, MA

Pay $640 for the summer season CSA. They have add-on shares like eggs, flowers, and fruit. You can pick up your weekly share in Brighton, Cambridge, and Jamaica Plain, as well as a handful of other towns. You can also get it delivered at extra cost through MetroPedal Power. Shareholders get special pick-your-own privileges.

Parker Farms, Lunenburg, MA

Steve Parker is a fixture at the Union Square farmers' market. Pay $325 for the small share or $500 for the large share. Pick-ups are in Davis Square, Somerville, and Porter and Central Squares, Cambridge.

Lands Sake, Weston, MA

Lands Sake is an education farm. (It's also a fantastic pick-your-own farm with strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and more. What's so nice about that is that it's organic, and it's hard to find u-pick organic fruits.) We love to visit the farm because it's a little bit hippy and super calm. They had some trouble with their CSA last year due in part to weather, but it's a long-running farm that cares about treating the land and the food right.

Stillman Farm, New Braintree, MA

Another meat CSA, year round. You can find them at farmers' markets and they're very popular. CSA members get a 20% discount at the markets! Like Chestnut, they have grass-fed, pastured animals that are raised in a sustainable and humane way. Shares go from 5lb for $46/month up to 20lb for $155/month. Pick-ups are in Jamaica Plain, Brookline, and Lunenburg.

Six Farms CSA at Silverbrook Farm

Pay $325-500 for a half share or $565-730 for a full share; prices vary based on pick-up or delivery location.

Silverbrook teamed up with 5 other farms to offer a CSA. Some farms specialize in certain products or add in something special to the whole partnership. You also get Hannabells from Shy Brothers Cheese, since they're one of the six farms. Mmm. Pick-up locations around Boston, Cambridge, Cape Cod, Rhode Island, and more. In Cambridge, they'll deliver your share through MetroPedal Power, included in the CSA price.

Cape Ann Fresh Catch, Gloucester, MA

This CSA is really a CSF, a community supported fishery. This unique program brings some of the local sea bounty to New Englanders, year-round. Each fish is valued the same, no matter the species. That allows the fishermen and women to go out and catch fish without chasing the highest paying species. There's no toss-back of caught, dead fish that don't get as high a price as other species. There's less environmental damage in the quest for the priciest fish. They can fish unstressed areas and not risk their lives as much bringing it in. You'll get cod, haddock, hake, shrimp, and more. They use innovative shrimping tools to minimize by-catch and environmental damage, and this shrimp is local -- not the ecosystem-damaging shrimp you can find in the freezer section.

They have a bunch of different sign-up options, including all shrimp and a shrimp-fish combo. Pay $125-$400 for a 10-week share from anything from 5lb of shrimp to 40lb of fish. Pickups are all over the area, Cambridge, Jamaica Plain, Acton, Ipswich, and many more.

Drumlin Farm, Lincoln, MA

Drumlin Farm is a Mass Audubon Sanctuary. They also have a popular CSA, as well as a winter share that comes from their root cellar. Pay $575 or $525 if you work the farm for 8 hours. Pick up at the farm, Central or Porter in Cambridge, or in Jamaica Plain, Dorchester, and Quincy

Picadilly Farm, Winchester, NH

This certified organic farm has pick up in Arlington, Bedford, and Belmont. The form isn't online yet for 2010, but 2009 shares were $525.

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April Paffrath is a writer in Cambridge. Food is her big love, next to her husband and their 3-year-old daughter (who frequently makes dinner right alongside the grown-ups). She writes the blog Wicked Tasty Harvest with two of her food-writer pals. You can follow April on Twitter at @prillyp.

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Image credit: Siena Farms

Pursuant to last week’s local and indie awesomeness post, if you want to shop local and support artists and crafters this weekend, there will be plenty of crafty awesomeness to be had at the SoWa Holiday Market in the South End, CraftBoston at the Cyclorama, and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education Holly Fair in Harvard Square. Enjoy!

Image credit: Made in Lowell, showing at SoWa Holiday Market

Today, Jennifer shares some indie gems in Concord :

“Between this season’s mountain of catalogs filling my mailbox, the incessant ads for Black Friday door-buster deals (2 am, really?), and the stream of online price-slashing deals, I have found myself craving a good old-fashioned stroll-down-Main-Street-non-mall-shopping experience. So last week a girlfriend and I perused the independent shops in Concord Center and it was...AWESOME. I'm a huge fan of the convenience of big retailers and online shopping, but you've just gotta love the independent businesses that are passionate about what they have to offer. And it feels great to support them.
We loved Thoreauly Antiques (25 Walden Street, 978-371-0100, no website), a "fun and affordable antique shop" with beautiful collectibles, jewelry, prints, and unique decor items. Steps away we poked around in The Toy Shop of Concord and found some great stocking stuffers for the kids. I'm particularly fond of their fully-stocked arts and crafts and doll sections. Around the corner is The Dotted I with lovely note cards, stationery, and invites (I picked up a great hostess gift there). And my favorite, favorite book shop just down the block is The Concord Bookshop. This independent bookstore (open since 1940) is so inviting and is obviously run by major book lovers. It showcases local writers and has a great kids reading area in the back.

And finally, you can't leave Concord Center without a stop in The Concord Cheese Shop. This gourmet wine and cheese shop is a little slice of food heaven. In fact, it was so crowded with shoppers our visit there was short. That's always a good sign.

Also, if you're an antique fan, there's an upcoming event that's a perfect excuse to head to Concord for holiday shopping -- the Antiques & Vintage Holiday Gift Show -- December 12-13 at the Concord Armory.”

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Image credit: The Concord Bookshop

Though we tend to go minimal and handmade for the holidays (column on this topic forthcoming), when we do buy gifts, we shop local and/or indie as much as possible. And oh how the local and indie awesomeness abounds in Boston! Worth checking out this weekend: the Boston Bazaar Bizarre (Sunday, December 6) at the Cyclorama, Boston Handmade’s retail gallery featuring 30+ local artisans and crafters at Downtown Crossing (open now through December 24), and the Harvard Square Holiday Fair (open now through December 23).

Image credit: locally operated Murdock Design (showing at the Boston Bazaar Bizarre on Sunday).