She's mused in private about organizing a California Peace Corps and holding a giant online "garage sale," where ordinary Californians and celebrities could donate proceeds to help the state dig out of its budget mess.

In late January, she toured the obscure Golden State History Museum and persuaded Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, whose office manages it, to change its name and image.

"That (old) name's terrible," Shelley said first lady Maria Shriver told him, and he was happy to put up a new sign outside the newly christened California State History Museum at 10th and O streets.

The real payoff comes in May, when Shriver unveils there what she hopes will be a permanent exhibit showcasing "Remarkable California Women."

Quietly, mostly behind the scenes, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's wife is starting to make her presence felt.

"She's a devoted mother and she wanted to make sure this new identity developed gradually," said Kevin Starr, the state librarian and one of its top historians. "After all, the governor just declared (his candidacy) in August. This is a dramatic new lifestyle they're having."

California's last two governors' wives, Sharon Davis and Gayle Wilson, expanded the traditional role of first lady to include social issues - mentoring and books, for example - important to them, Starr said. But Shriver brings "considerable momentum" to the job by virtue of her unique background.

"She's a celebrity in her own right as a television personality, as a best-selling author and a daughter of a distinguished family - the Shrivers - and the niece of President Kennedy," he said.

"We've seen the job expand dramatically over time with the last few administrations, and I think Maria Shriver will expand it even further."

Shriver's higher profile as first lady comes in part because she resigned last month after a long career as on-air reporter and anchorwoman at NBC News when the network concluded it saw no way around the conflict created by her husband's entry into politics.

She has said she has no idea what kind of first lady she intends to be, but wants to focus attention on the importance of parenting and contributions from women.

Laurence Leamer, who has written three books on the Kennedys, including the just-released "Sons of Camelot," says she's about to take California by storm.

"Oprah Winfrey, her good friend, is probably the most influential woman in America," Leamer said. "I think she'll have the same kind of impact in the long run.

"And it's OK if she makes some mistakes. She doesn't want to be a traditional first lady. She wants to try something new. She's going to make mistakes."

Given California's other concerns, the history museum is a small undertaking. But those who know Shriver say it's indicative of her style.

She loves to take her four children to museums, and after one visit to the museum that opened nearly six years ago, she concluded this one needed a new name and some pizazz.

"Right now, it's an attractive venue for fourth-graders," Shelley said, "but with her help we can make it so much more."

Shriver and Schwarzenegger have agreed to raise money for an upgrade, and aides say they'll probably host an exhibit kickoff party.

And in the next week or so, Ed Schlossberg, the artist and designer who is married to Shriver's cousin Caroline Kennedy, will be in Sacramento to help design the exhibit and come up with suggestions to jazz up the overall museum.

Schlossberg is best known for his design of the interactive Family Immigration History Center on Ellis Island that allows visitors to learn if they're descended from an Ellis Island immigrant.

"I couldn't have - and the state couldn't have - a more exciting benefactor for this museum than Maria Shriver," Shelley said.

Some of Shriver's initiatives are even more modest in scope.

In a hallway inside the governor's complex of offices, Shriver didn't care for the ordinary wood frames on a wall of photos depicting California governors.

So she replaced - at her own expense, aides said - 37 frames with modern-looking frames of brushed steel, while also adding her own political touch on the opposite hallway: "California's Remarkable First Ladies," says the sign over 21 portraits aides rounded up for Shriver. "They Served, Too."

She also helped arrange a rotating art show of sorts in the anteroom of the Governor's Office in the Capitol. The current exhibit, on loan from a museum in Irvine, is of oil paintings that depict spring in California.

"I realize people don't yet have a sense of her," said Terri Carbaugh, a spokeswoman. "Since the governor was sworn in (on Nov. 17), Maria's focus has been on her children, as a mother ensuring normalcy in their lives."

California and the rest of the nation will see more of Shriver in the next month or so in connection with events that have nothing to do with her first lady role.

On May 3, her third book on serious issues that are aimed at children - "What's Happening to Grandpa?" about Alzheimer's disease - will be released.

Shriver's staff said the first lady, despite her background in journalism, hasn't been interested in giving interviews, including for this story.

But she's on the cover of Sacramento magazine's May issue, which includes an interview she agreed to do about her book.

She'll also start a publicity blitz on the book that will land her on "Oprah," "Larry King Live," the "Today" show and many more.

And she plans to help promote an authorized biography of her father, Sargent Shriver, a brother-in-law of the late President John F. Kennedy who started the Peace Corps and was a U.S. ambassador to France. "Sarge: the Life and Times of Sargent Shriver," also comes out in May.

Maria Shriver is to host a Washington tribute to her father, with her uncle, Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, on May 5. Six days later, she'll host a signing for her own book at the Borders bookstore on Fair Oaks Boulevard in Sacramento. It was her father's Alzheimer's disease, publicly disclosed in January 2003, that inspired her latest book.

Tuesday night, in the CBS News show "48 Hours" devoted to Leamer's new book on the adult sons and grandsons of President Kennedy's generation, Shriver provided a glimpse of what it was like growing up with the Shrivers and Kennedys.

"We were raised that you can make a difference in life," she told Leslie Stahl. "My brothers always say, 'Oh, we prepared you for the world of journalism, we prepared you for Arnold, we prepared you for everything - and in a way, they're right. ...

"I'm so hopeful that people will understand the Shriver legacy, not as much as the Kennedy legacy, because it doesn't have the same sex appeal. But it's a solid legacy."