Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubbers

I hate to clean. I make no secret of that. Since we're in the process of trying to sell our house though, I recently had to suck it up and get this joint in order. The big pre-showing clean up seemed to be as good a time as any to try out the Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber sample that I was recently sent.

I tried the Action Scrubber out and you know what? I was pretty impressed. It lives up to all of it's claims. It's comfortable to hold and use, it works well on soap scum, it doesn't have a harsh smell, it rinses away clean. And you know what else? Now don't tell anyone I said this. It was a little bit fun to use. Seeing it wipe away all the soap scum and gunk on my shower walls was kind of neat. But I'll never admit to enjoying cleaning something because then people might start expecting me to do it more often.

So don't you want to get in on the fun? Of course you do! So click here to get a coupon for $2.75 off a Scrubbing Bubbles Action Scrubber. I already got the coupon because once my sample box is gone I'm going to be buying this product again. Anything that makes cleaning easier, quicker and (gasp) more fun? Gets an A+ in my book!

Preserver toothbrush giveaway winner

The winner of the Preserve toothbrush giveaway (determined by Random.org) is ......

Cathy! Congratulations Cathy! I hope you enjoy the toothbrushes.

For the rest of you, don't despair. I'll be doing another giveaway very soon. I'm generous like that.

A vacation the whole family will love

I need a vacation. Come on, admit it. You do too. Where do you find the time though? I don't know about you but for us our summer days are filled with sports, day camps, family get togethers, weddings, barbecues and visits from the air conditioner repair man. I don't know how we would even fit in a week long vacation. And even if we could get away where would we go? Everywhere is just so hot and crowded that it almost takes the fun out of being there.

So how about trying something different? What about taking your summer vacation in the fall? Vacationing in the off season can have a lot of benefits. Smaller crowds, cooler weather and (this is a biggie) lower prices. Consider Beaches Wonderfall Celebration.
You could save up to 45% by staying at selected resorts PLUS get one or two free nights (depending on the length of your stay) when you book a stay between September 1st and November 4th. It's a great family vacation at a really reasonable price. And what a wonderful way to make all the best parts of summer (family togetherness, relaxation, fun) last just a little bit longer.

If you've got kids you might be especially interested in the long list of kids activities that Beaches offers. This includes a full staffed nursery, a kids and teen disco, golf for kids, pools and water slides (including toddler pools) and group activities by age. You might also be interested to note that the resorts offer nanny services so that mom and dad can have a little free time too.

So take a look at the Beaches website. I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised by the kind of vacation that Beaches can offer you and your family!

Preserve toothbrush review and contest

In out house we try to practice the three R's as much as possible. We reduce, recycle and reuse because we think it's important as I imagine most people do. I sometimes wonder though about all the little things we throw away without even thinking about it. All those little things can add up and have a big impact. The good news is that we can all do little things that can add up to have a positive impact. Enter the Preserve toothbrush!
The thinking behind the new Preserve toothbrush is pretty clever. How it works is this:
1. You buy the toothbrush (It's available at Target for only $2.04 PLUS the Recycline website has money saving coupons you can print off)
2. You use the toothbrush until it's time to replace it. (Dentists recommend switching it every three months!)
3. You send your used toothbrush back to Recycline via the prepaid envelope that is provided to you. (Yes, it's free for you to send it back to them!)
4. Your old toothbrush is then re-processed into plastic lumber for picnic tables, boardwalks and decks.

Now that's just neat. Also neat is the fact that Recycline has a whole line of products including plates and tableware and I feel much better about Recycline goods than I do about other paper plates that I won't mention. (Except that I will.)

If you would like to try out the Preserve toothbrush for FREE just leave a comment on this post. On July 16th I will pick a commenter at random to receive TWO Preserve toothbrushes. You can feel good about keeping your teeth clean and helping to keep the planet clean. And what could be better than that?

Popcorn giveaway winners

The winners of my Orville Redenbacher popcorn giveaway have been chosen. I assigned a number to each entry and used Random.org to pick two winning numbers. The winners are......

The Gray Gang and my aunt Doreen.

You know, I almost redrew when my aunt came up as a winner because I thought it was going to look like I cheated or something. But then I figured no one would really think I had cheated just so that a family member could get some free popcorn. Right? RIGHT!?!? Anyway. Don't be sad if you didn't win this time around. I have another contest coming up really soon and this time I probably won't even let my family members enter.

Orville Redenbacher popcorn giveaway

In our house we love popcorn. The kids love to eat it during family movie night and both of them can pack it away like you wouldn't believe. I've got one kid that's pickier than all get out with food and one with a major sweet tooth but popcorn is one snack that we can all agree on. Of course the kind of popcorn I really like comes from a movie theater and is swimming in "butter" but microwaved popcorn is a pretty good substitute.

Thanks to the good folks at Orville Redenbacher you can now enter my contest right here to win a popcorn sample pack. The rules are very simple. Leave a comment on this entry telling me your favorite "junk" food and what healthier option you like to replace it with. Or maybe you don't replace it with anything? Just tell me that! It's an acceptable answer too! Or maybe you don't eat junk food. That's not an acceptable answer because anyone who doesn't eat some kind of junk food is evil.

Two winners will be chosen at random to receive an Orville Redenbacher sample pack. Comments must be left before 11:59 PM on June 25th in order to be accepted. One entry per person please! You don't have to have a blog to enter but if you don't please make sure you leave a valid email address for me to get in contact with you if you are the winner.

Not sure what you would do with that popcorn if you won it? Try my popcorn salad!

Childhood is Calling - a website review

Childhood is Calling is the official Rice Krispies Web site that I was asked to do a review for. I'll admit that I was pretty cynical as I set out to review this site as I HATE the Rice Krispies commercial. True, I hate about 99% of the commercials on TV but there's something about the woman Ohhhhhhh ohhhhhing in the background as they try to promote eating Rice Kripsies as a family bonding activity that really grates on my nerves.

But, being the fair person that I am I decided to put aside my dislike for the commercial and give the website an unbiased review. Joseph helped me out and gave me his opinions.

It's actually a pretty cute site. It has games for kids, recipes, nutritional information, music and more. Joseph tried out several of the games and liked most of them. His favorite was the one where you could decorate your own virtual rice krispie treat, as strange as that sounds. One feature that he really like about the games was that a lot of them could be played with two people. Joseph is still small enough to sit on my lap so we sat together and played some of the turn based games several times.

In addition to the recipes from the good folks at Kellogg's, you can find recipes submitted by "people like you". I guess people like you like a lot of dessert because that's what all the recipes are. I'm seriously considering trying to come up with a dinner recipe using Rice Krispies and seeing if they'll put it on the site. (Baked chicken with a rice Krispie coating perhaps?)

Like all websites that are designed to promote a specific product, the marketing is pretty heavy handed. I mean, a game where you decorate a Rice Krispie treat? Not exactly subtle. Still, Joseph enjoyed the games (in fact, he asked me to mark the site as one of his favorites) and it's totally child-safe so I would feel ok with him visiting it without me hovering over his shoulder. If nothing else it's a good way to kill 15 minutes or so. And if there's one thing that kids need, it's a way to spend more time on the Internet (says the lady who just let her kids spend time on the site so that he could help her with a review.)

A final note, right now on the site you can get a coupon for $1 off Rice Krispies with Strawberries. Not a bad deal.

This compensated (yet entirely honest) review has been cross posted at Problem Girl. From here on posts of this nature will only be posted here.

Kellog's Frosted Flakes Gold

I am a cold cereal junkie. Before I started eating oatmeal every single fricken day for breakfast I would have cold cereal most mornings. Nowadays it's not unusual for me to have a bowl of cereal for lunch or for a night time snack.

When I was in the hospital for a week with a collapsed lung (I am the only person in history of the world to get a collapsed lung while sitting on couch and watching TV) I would get a menu every day so that I could pick what I wanted for each meal. Every single morning I picked Frosted Flakes for breakfast. I don't know why exactly but I just loved opening that little box of cereal every morning. I think it might have been because as a kid we were never allowed to get the variety packs of cereal at the grocery store because they're such a big waste of money. Now, for me, little boxes of cereal = extreme luxury.

If you're a Frosted Flakes fan like I am then you might want to consider trying Frosted Flakes Gold. I think Frosted Flakes Gold are a little bit sweeter than regular Frosted Flakes. It's a honey sweetness though so it's not sickeningly sweet like so many other sugary cold cereals are. Frosted Flakes Gold score pretty well nutritionally too. A serving has only 1/2 gram of fat and 110 calories. It's also got a quarter of your daily recommended amount of several vitamins including iron and folic acid. Each serving has 3 grams of fiber. That's not terrible but it's not great either. Eating oatmeal with flax seed added to it has made me biased about fiber content. I'm a fiber snob.

One final note, I would probably not give this cereal to my kids. I don't let them eat any cereal that has sugar in the first three ingredients. Hey, they're my kids and I an impose arbitrary rules on them it I want to. Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Gold lists sugar as the second ingredient. Eek. To be fair though this is the case with most cereals. It's hard to find many that don't have a high sugar content. That's why my kids have toast most mornings. Well, that and I'm lazy.

This compensated (but entirely honest) review has been cross posted at Problem Girl. However, this is where most product reviews will be posted from here on out.

Kitchen organization suggestion

I have a huge problem with storage in my kitchen. I buy a lot of stuff in bulk from the natural food co-op so I've always got a lot of stuff just sitting around in plastic bags in my cupboards. Want a peek? Are you sure? It's not pretty.


What is that there on the bottom left, a birthday candle? Cripes. I need to clean out my cupboards.

The point is that the situation is bad. I've been looking for a while for something to help me get my cupboards in order but I've never been able to find something that meets all my requirements. I want something that seals tight, looks nice, is easy to open and close and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I've really looked everywhere and just last week I finally found what I was looking for.

These kitchen storage jars are from Shop-ko. The largest one cost about $13 and the smallest was $8. (There is one in the set that I don't have, the store was out of it.) They seal tight and they're fairly sturdy. I think they look like glass but they're actually acrylic. Now if I had only bought 14 more I would be able to get my cupboards clean for real.