Some days, when I'm not busy knitting outfits for my kitten or playing "find the stinky thing" in the back of my aging minivan, I edit our growing family of magazines. This is a job that is at times surprisingly demanding and startlingly poignant. After more than a decade of parenting, I'm always amazed at how each publication effectively blasts away any whiff of "been there, done that" that might otherwise waft in. No chance to get smug - no matter how magnificent my two children are turning out to be - with the experts weighing in. My office yoga chair gives me the ultimate hindsight view on my own parenting.

Coulda woulda shoulda - dang!

Into the miasma of deep thinking that goes along with editing and writing parenting magazines drops a happy little ray of sunshine called PartyMap. It landed like a rainbow onto my Cheez-Doodle-strewn desk, and where has it been all this time? Here is a little mag dedicated to one thing: fun! It's something we can all use more of, don't you agree?

What's the hottest birthday gift for a tween? How can I throw a party on a shoestring? How can I make my party eco-friendly? Where does belly dancing fit into all of this? It's all in there, everything from sack races to soirees, and I smile just to think of it.

Oh, sure, I got some conflict in there - no self-respecting journalist could do otherwise - so your problems with weird relatives and rude guests get addressed, too. But mostly, PartyMap is a glorious glossy bon-bon, our birthday gift to ourselves, and the most fun I've had in some time.

You'll find it stuffed into our July issue, which you'll find in about two weeks. Party on!