6 Unimportant Things That Make Me Happy
June 11, 2009 | 3 Comments
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Shay tagged me with this blog meme. I’m supposed to list 6 “unimportant” things that make me happy.
There are so many small things that make me happy.
You could ask me this question every week and probably get different answers each time. For now, I’ll choose a theme.
How about summer?
6 Summer Things That Make Me Happy
1- Edy’s Lime Popsicles
photo credit: Gibsonclaire
Oh my goodness these are good. They’re sweetened with sugar instead of HFCS. And just between you and me, you can throw one into the blender with tequila and triple sec and make a super fast margarita.
2 - My Blue Fingernail Polish from Piggy Paints
If you’re not familiar, Piggy Paints is a non toxic nail polish. As soon as my toes came out of hiding, they got the blue treatment.
3 - Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil
I’m working on a review of this product now. I’ve long used coconut oil for cooking, but this stuff I’m taking as a supplement - anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon a day, straight up.
I also use it externally - I rub it on my skin after a shower while I’m damp. It soaks in quicker than any other oil! I use a few drops on my hair as a conditioner before shampooing and after, as a styling aid - my hair has never looked so shiny!
It’s great for keeping your feet soft, so I use a little on my feet just before bed. I slather it on my face at night. Love the stuff.
(It just occurred to me that perhaps #3 doesn’t fit the description of uninportant. Nutrition and health are certainly important. Moving on…)
4 - Facebook
I’ll admit it. Facebook is my guilty pleasure. I recently made the decision to remove all business contacts from Facebook so it can be all about friends and family and the odd ex boyfriend.
The way I figure, I don’t have a television, I don’t read trashy magazines, so why not? It’s too much fun to connect and re-connect with people you care about.
5 - The City Pool
We bought a pass. For $30 all 5 of us can swim our little hearts out. I can’t think of cheaper summer entertainment than that!
The 3 older kids are taking swim lessons for an hour a day, 5 days a week for two weeks. That’s been fun for them and they’re a lot more confident in the water. Sadie didn’t meet the height requirement but she has worked her charms on the hot lifeguards instructors and so every day they’ve grabbed her and let her participate.
6 - Avocados
I love avocados. I just one ate one, straight up, with a spoon.
Now it’s your turn:
Lisa @ MsFitUniverse
Nichole @ FullEarthsEtc
Amanda @ oohAmanda
Nell @ CasualFridayEveryday
Stefanie @ MommyMusings
Jo-Lynn @ MusingsOfAHousewife
(The rules are: link to this post, list your 6 things, link to 6 other bloggers and comment on their blog too.)
Last Minute Mom Essay Contest
May 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment
International House of Pancakes wants you to know that there is still a couple of days left to enter their essay competition. Write something touching about your mom and you could win one of several $100 gift certificates to IHOP.
The Tale of Despereaux Giveaway
April 12, 2009 | 13 Comments
This week I’m giving away The Tale of Despereaux DVD to someone.
Did you read my review of the movie here?
We loved the book and I wasn’t surprised that the movie was great too.
Just leave a comment below if you would like to win. I’ll choose a winner on Friday, April 18th at NOON Eastern time.
In the meantime, here’s a video clip you can watch.
Where Has This Bra BEEN All My Life?
April 4, 2009 | 20 Comments
While I don’t actually need to wear a nursing bra anymore, I was totally stoked when the people at Amon Maternity asked me to review their nursing bra and bodyshaper.
First I’ll wax poetic about the bra. Two days after I got it, tried it on, and quickly fell in love, I emailed the company:
“I have not taken this bra off since I got it, even to sleep!
I don’t normally wear a nursing bra to bed but since it feels like wearing nothing and I wanted to mention how it felt to sleep in it on my review, I didn’t take it off.“
The Amon maternity/nursing bra is quite honestly the most comfortable bra I’ve ever worn, of ANY kind. 
Now some moms might not like the fact that it has light support.
Some moms who are accustomed to more support (or more lining to hide the … um… headlight issue) may not like this bra.
But I love it. It feels like I’m wearing nothing at all. The Amon nursing bra is available in sizes Small - Extra Large.
The bodyshaper I’ve only worn a couple of times because I generally don’t wear these, and I also got the Medium which ended up being too big which kind of misses the point of a bodyshaper.
But it’s really nice. It doesn’t cut into my flesh anywhere and feels pretty comfortable. It helps smooth everything out so you can look nice in those slim jeans. 
Amon is letting me give away a $50 gift certificate to one winner.
Here’s how it works.
Leave a comment below. That’s one entry.
You can get additional entries by doing any of the following:
- Link to the blog from yours. It doesn’t have to be *this* page, any page will do. (If you don’t have a blog you can just email some friends)
- Twitter about the site. Again - doesn’t have to be this page you link to.
- Subscribe to my RSS feed.
- Subscribe to the newsletter (sign up box on the top right).
- Tell me in the comments field what you did to earn entries.
That’s it!
A winner will be picked on Friday, April 10th at 5 P.M. Eastern time.
Have fun!
Melissa and Doug Toys on Sale
April 3, 2009 | 2 Comments
Are you familiar with Melissa and Doug toys? They are an awesome line of high quality wooden toys. You can read reviews of some of these toys here:
At the moment, Amazon has their selection of some of the bestselling Melissa and Doug Toys on Sale
Weren’t we just talking about avoiding junky cheap plastic toys? Some great comments in that thread!
Discount Code for Soft Leather Baby Shoes
February 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Who doesn’t love these soft sole leather baby shoes? My babies lived in these. I wish I could still buy them but alas my kids are in regular shoes now.
Cute Baby Shoes has very reasonably priced soft sole leather shoes, and their site has a special offer until February 28.
Enter the code HappyShip at checkout and get FREE standard shipping.
These guys have the most adorable designs. Start shopping here!
Homemade Play Dough and Goop
February 4, 2009 | Leave a Comment
You know, I’m not very crafty.
My mom has an entire ROOM in her home set up with kids crafts and every conceivable artsy medium, which I think is awesome, but me? 
Not really my gig.
Although I do love looking at the cool stuff the kids make.
I’m also happy to share someone else’s crafty kid fun ideas with you when they come to my inbox.
Beth Engelman is an author and businesswoman who was looking to find ways to have fun with her 3-year-old without spending a fortune.Her website, www.engelmanriggs.com has ideas and she’s also given me permission to post these recipes for homemade play dough and homemade goop. (I remember that stuff from grade school!)
Homemade Play Dough with Action Figures:
You Need:
1 cup flour
½ cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 Tablespoons oil
1cup warm water
Several drops of food coloring
Airtight container with lid such as Tupperware or Ziploc storage container
Plastic action figures such as animals, insects or pirates available at any party supply store
Instructions
Mix ingredients on top of the stove then remove from heat. Knead into dough making sure there are no bumps. Once cooled, place in airtight container, adding action figures for a play dough adventure gift that is sure to delight.
Homemade Goop:
It’s gooey, slimy and mess-free!
You Need
2 cup salt
2/3 cup water
1 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup water
Airtight container with lid such as Tupperware or Ziploc storage container
Instructions
Mix 2/3 cup water and salt in a pot and heat for 4-5 minutes. Remove from heat and add cornstarch and ½ water to the mixture and stir until smooth. Return to heat and stir until thick. Store in airtight container.
photo credit: woodleywonderworks
A Book of His Own
January 24, 2009 | 3 Comments
When I was little, my parents had a book made for me that featured my name and my best friend and pet’s names.
I thought it was the coolest thing ever, and practically wore the thing threadbare. In fact, I still have it somewhere. It was very special to me.
Frecklebox asked me if I would tell you about their personalized story books, posters and coloring books and I jumped at the chance to get one.
I asked them to send a personalized book to my 7 year old son Julien, who struggles a bit with reading. When he opened the package, his face totally lit up. It took him a minute to “get it”, but once he did he was positively thrilled.
He feels like a celebrity.
This is him reading his very own personalized book.
I’ve never seen him learn a new book so quickly as he is learning this one.
This book has a nature theme and features the child’s name written with autumn leaves, clouds, ladybugs, flowers, shells, rocks, birds, and stars.
They say every person’s favorite sound is the sound of their own name.
I think it’s true.
p.s. That’s spy gear around his chest
Visit Frecklebox to see their entire line up of personalized books for kids.
On My Nightstand This Month
December 24, 2008 | 2 Comments
5 Minutes for Books has a monthly meme called “What’s On Your Nightstand” and I decided to play along this time.
These are the books I’ve read this month, either in their entirety or at least partially. There’s always a stack of books on my nightstand and sofa.
* Pasture Perfect: The Far-Reaching Benefits of Choosing Meat, Eggs, and Dairy Products from Grass-Fed Animals
* Never Be Sick Again: Health is a Choice, Learn How to Choose It
* Feeding the Whole Family: Cooking with Whole Foods
* Empowered To Birth Naturally by Patrice London - the story of a mom and her journey to homebirth.
My latest issue of Ready Made
* All of these authors are upcoming guests on the show so stay tuned.
Review: Mom Essentials Organizer
December 21, 2008 | 2 Comments
The other day I mentioned that most moms have as a goal to get more organized. We’re always looking for that one magic idea or magic tool to help us to that end. The folks at Mommy Track’d came up with something that might make it all a little easier.
It’s called Mom Essentials: A One-Stop Organizer for Moms on the Move
They gave me a copy of this all in one organizer and I thought about giving it away, but sorry ladies. I’ve fallen for it!
For years I’ve used a “day-timer” type of organizer with refillable pages. I liked them well enough, but found that half of the inserts that come within are useless to me as a mom, and some of the stuff I wanted was not available.
As an example, I don’t need multiple pages for budgets (why do I need to carry that around with me all the time?), business expenditures (I record all that on the computer), mileage records, etc. I also don’t need the phone number and address fillers because I don’t want to update those each year when I get a new planner. I like to have ONE address book here at home. Anyone I call is programmed into my phone so I really only need to know someone’s address anyway, and it’s never urgent and can wait until I get home to look in my address book.
Plus, the planners are expensive. Most of the planners I bought cost around $20-$30. And by March, they’d been sharpie-d, colored, markered, and scratched by four kids named “I didn’t do it“.
This organizer is perfect for most moms. It’s also fun. When you have to look at something every day, several times a day, it should be cute and fun.
Don’t you think?
I’ll tell you about some of the neat things in this organizer that make it different and cool for moms.
The Week at a Glance calendar page at the front is the mainstay. It’s the to-do list, everything for the week at a glance. Once the stuff is done and checked off, you simply tear of the page and dispose of it.
It then has a small section for V.I.P.’s (important phone numbers and addresses). I likely won’t use this section too much, for the reasons I outlined earlier. But it’s good it’s there. If I meet someone new and want to record their digits, I can put it here, then transfer it to my main address book at home later.
Also has a couple of pages called “Love at First Site” - a handy spot for website addresses you want to remember (probably a lot more effective than putting them in your bookmarks, which nobody checks very often and get cluttered too quickly), along with usernames and passwords. (Of course you wouldn’t want to record sensitive data in here like your bank account or paypal stuff.)
The next section has checklists perforated with two on each page.
We are not Superwoman, so a half page is plenty enough! Once you’ve done the stuff, you can easily tear the page out and dispose of it, avoiding clutter in your organizer. (Which is some kind of organizational oxymoron that could throw off the cosmic order of things.)
And instead of being boring old plain white, they have a kitschy cute green wallpaperesque background. Remember what I said? If you gotta look at it all the time, make it stylish.
I like the Juggling Act section because this is where you can list stuff that doesn’t have to happen right away, or that can be outsourced or delegated. Thus reminding you to delegate stuff.
The Food For Thought area allows you to plan menus (very handy for moms!) and grocery lists. I probably won’t use the section for Takeout Orders because I don’t do takeout, but I’m sure it would come in handy for some people.
At the end there are plenty of pages of blank notes for those random thoughts and ideas that hit you. Now you have one place to record them all. At the end of the notes section is a pocket for receipts and other stuff you have to stash until they’re filed. Like bills you need to take to the mailbox, deposit slips and the like.
Finally at the back of the book are 6 sections of sticky notes, each featuring a cute saying like “balance schmalance”, “too bad all this juggling isn’t toning my arms”, etc. So you can write a note and immediately stick it somewhere. Cute and so handy!
(Not shown actual size here.)
The only thing I don’t like about the Mom Essentials organizer is that it lacks a yearly calendar, so you would probably need to put dates on the weekly planning pages. It would also be a bit challenging to schedule events for the upcoming months. If you’re like me and never know what day it is unless you check a calendar, this might be an issue. It seems a teensy bit incomplete without a “Month at a Glance” section.
I suppose you could paste a small year at a glance type of thing in the back somewhere.
The whole thing is neatly wrapped up in a cute purse sized organizer that you won’t be embarrassed to pull out of your bag. This planner, combined with my recently adopted ToDooDlist system (which is similar to GTD/Getting Things Done but far easier to understand and implement!), will help me make 2009 ROCK.
Check it out here:
Mom Essentials: A One-Stop Organizer for Moms on the Move
