Dapper Snappers – A Mom4Life Giveaway
By mom4life | Category: 4 Free Friday Giveaway, Mom 4 Life News & Giveaways
Congratulations to Laura, the winner of last week’s giveaway! The Tag*a*Long Handle is now 20% off for one week only, so don’t miss this opportunity to shop for a great product at a great price!
Do your child’s hand-me-downs fit as well as they could? Is the waist often too big for your little ones pants? Does your child struggle with a traditional belt? Keep your child’s pants up where they belong with this week’s easy-to-use and affordable giveaway!
The Tag*a*Long Handle to Keep Independent Kids Close
Retail Price: $11.99 $9.99 20% off for one week only!
Do you have a child that longs to be independent but is still to young to safely walk totally on their own? The Tag*a*Long addresses this need head on. It is a handle that you can easily attach to your stroller, shopping cart, or diaper bag providing an option for older siblings or those kids that do not want to sit in the stroller, keeping them close by your side… learn more or watch my Tag a Long review video to see not only how easy it is to start using, but the many places and ways in which it can be used!
Dapper Snappers Adjustable Toddler Belts to the rescue to fix droopy drawers in a snap!
Retail price: $13.99
Imagine this… You’re getting the kids dressed in the morning and discover that, lo and behold, your smallest darling has had a nighttime growth spurt and all his pants are too short. “Thank goodness for hand-me-downs,” you think as you raid your preschooler’s outgrown clothes from last year. You slide them up and snap them, concentrating on the cuffs, delighted to see they are the correct length…until you let go of the clasp and the waist shimmies down to the poor child’s thighs! Ugh…the length is good but the waist is too big. Dapper Snappers can solve this situation in a snap! Simply slip it in the back belt loops and customize the fit according to your child’s waist size. Soon their pants will fit and they won’t have to fuss with a belt to get their pants on and off, easy peasy!… learn more or watch my Dapper Snappers toddler belt review video (this week’s video is extra fun as it features the children’ of the mom inventor as well as my daughter Ashlyn all talking about what they like about their Dapper Snappers and showing us how easy it is to use)!
To enter: simply follow the directions in the Rafflecopter entry form below (it is necessary to be on our blog to do this so if you are reading this via email you will need to visit this post directly).
Posted Friday, January 27, 2012
Lunch notes
By mom4life | Category: The Journey of Motherhood
When I unpacked Hunter’s lunch bag earlier this year, I found this note:
I upped his rations and things had been going well. Then last week, I got this one:
I think he is starting to figure that as long as he is going to be making requests, he may as well throw in an extra.
For those of you well read in children’s literature, this all sort of reminds me of the children’s book “Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type“.
I am only half tempted to send two carrot sticks tomorrow and see if he throws in a third request 
.
Posted Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Meal planning for dummies
By mom4life | Category: Fit 4 Life, Healthy Living, Recipes & Kitchen Tips
Making my way though One Bite at a Time: 52 Projects for Making Life Simpler has been a fun challenge. This week I was determined to get back into the habit of meal planning (item #5). For me, meal planning has been an on and off again routine. Whenever I am in the routine I LOVE it.
Knowing what I am going to make ahead of time:
-Helps me to stratagize what we eat to make sure we are getting a good balance of nutrition.
-Allows me to plan a good mix of new recipes that I want to try with some old reliable favorites.
-Presents the opportunity to be more prepared to bless others in need with a meal.
-Avoids last minute 5:00 dinner stress or unnecessary eating out spending.
-Enables me to buy only what is needed and thus less food is wasted.
What typically goes wrong, and how I am trying to avoid it:
However, after a few weeks of regular planning, an inevitable a holiday or break in routine will bring an end to the plans and I somehow get sucked back into the “I don’t know what we are having for dinner” stress. I am not naive enough to think this won’t happen again. But I can try to anticipate the hangups that have caused problems in the past and seek to avoid them.
- After reading Tsh’s suggestion to plan two weeks ahead at a time I feel that is a good fit for me. In the past I have only planned one week in advance and I feel that left too much opportunity to drop the ball between weeks. Planning at least two weeks out keeps me feeling more prepared and gives me a little more time to get the next two weeks done. Plus, as long as I am taking the time to plan one week, doing two doesn’t really take much more time.
- I have at times gotten too excited to try new recipes and packed my schedule full of “newbies.” Making new recipes inevitably takes more time and has a higher “risk” factor involved (who will like it?). To combat this, I am now asking the older two kids and my husband to each pick one homemade meal per week (i.e. if they want Mac & Cheese it is my rule that it will be a homemade version). They choose what it is and I get to choose what night to make it. This helps guarantee that everyone has at least one meal they can look forward to and only leaves me with a few nights to plan out myself. This week Hunter’ picked homemade pizza. I enjoyed making the dough ahead of time and then allowing everyone to roll out their own pizza to bring over to the “topping bar” where they could choose their choice of sauce (we had spaghetti and Alfredo sauces–both bases to other recipes in the week) and toppings. It was a hit and Hunter already plans to use it as his “pick” again soon.
Suggestions:
- Plan to double your recipes as often as you can and either freeze the extra or have fun blessing others with a meal.
- Try to be strategic about the meals you plan in the same week. Doing so allows you to prepare less to be used for more and is also helpful for saving money. For example, as I mentioned above, last week we had our family’s favorite Alfredo recipe the night after we had homemade pizzas (allowing us to use the sauce for two meals). I also used a large jar of Spaghetti sauce for my Baked Spaghetti, Chili and for our homemade pizza recipes. My Costco rotisserie chicken was used for our lime tacos, white chili, pizza topping and to make several jars of Chicken broth. If you find a great weekly combination of meals I encourage you to save it and reuse it. Once you get a few great weeks you can rely on them as handy “stand by” weeks for times that you don’t feel like coming up with something new.
- If you don’t already have a system in place for meal planning, I suggest considering a free service such as ZipList or Cozi or a paid and slightly more robust service such as Plan to Eat. A while back I made a review video for Plan to Eat that you might enjoy. In addition, if you sign up with Plan to Eat, please “friend me” (my user account is “mom4life”) which will allow both of us to automatically see each other’s recipe box (and save those we like to our own).
What do you do for meal planning?
Do you have a system that is working well for you or no system at all? I would love to hear your thoughts or see a link to some of your favorite recipes!
Posted Monday, January 23, 2012
The Tag*a*Long Handle – A Mom 4 Life Giveaway
By mom4life | Category: 4 Free Friday Giveaway, Mom 4 Life News & Giveaways
Congratulations to Melissa, who was our winner last week for the Born to Love Mohawk Hats! Didn’t win? Lucky for you these Hip & Trendy Mohawk Hats for babies and kids are on sale for the next week at 20% off, so grab yours now!
Keep your kids close by, while still supporting their independence with this week’s giveaway!
Born to Love Hip & Trendy Mohawk Hats for babies and kids
Retail Price: $29.99 – $31.99 $23.99 – $25.59 20% off for one week only!
From the George Lopez show to BabyTalk magazine to several celebrity sightings, Born to Love has become known as the designer of the “dapperest” hats on the market for children. Our customers love their beanies, berets, ivy hats, newsboys, and fedoras.
These hats will transform your little angel into a super fun stylish mohawk-y sport’n dude (or dudette). Help them keep warm without losing their cool!… learn more
The Tag*a*Long Handle to Keep Independent Kids Close
Retail price: $11.99
Do you have a child that longs to be independent but is still to young to safely walk totally on their own? The Tag*a*Long addresses this need head on. It is a handle that you can easily attach to your stroller, shopping cart, or diaper bag providing an option for older siblings or those kids that do not want to sit in the stroller, keeping them close by your side… learn more or watch my Tag a Long review video to see not only how easy it is to start using, but the many places and ways in which it can be used!
To enter: simply follow the directions in the Rafflecopter entry form below (it is necessary to be on our blog to do this so if you are reading this via email you will need to visit this post directly).
Posted Friday, January 20, 2012
Easy 3 Ingredient Homemade Lip Balm
By kristinabjornbak | Category: Healthy Living, It Worked 4 Me, Recipes & Kitchen Tips
I want to thank Kristina for this great guest post on how to make your own homemade lip balm! ~Heather
After having some trouble finding an all natural lip balm that I liked, I started looking around at lip balm recipes. I was floored by the amount of ingredients in some of them. Five ingredients? Ten??? The cost just to set up was staggering. Not only that, many of the ingredients I would use only for the lip balm, making the cost seem even more dizzyingly high. I just wanted something easy, something simple, something natural. That’s why I was delighted when I stumbled upon Green Bee’s recipe for homemade lip balm. Super quick, super easy, and only three natural ingredients!
Of course, like most recipes I find, I modify them just a bit as I see fit. Below you find my slightly modified recipe for a nice mildly minty lip balm.
Ingredients:
- 2 teaspoons grated beeswax
- 2 and 3/4 teaspoons sweet almond oil (not bitter almond oil!)
- 5 drops peppermint essential oil
Materials needed:
- 2-3 lip balm tubes
- small pot
- Pyrex or heat resistant 1 cup measuring cup
