The Good Night Lite

This product is one of those items that makes you wonder "What took so long?" The Good Night Lite is an adorable nightlight that provides behavioral modification to guide your young child to stay in bed at the appropriate time and show them when it's time to get up.

For those that have very active children, trying to establish a routine can be very difficult. The child acts on their impulses and that's the end of it. Gee Mom and Dad, were you trying to sleep? Sorry, your child wants to play and you are their favorite toy.

The Good Night Lite will show your child a moon image when it's time to sleep and a sun when it's time to wake up. This product is perfect when your child is old enough to understand guidelines. If your child wakes up and sees the moon on the light, they will begin to understand that it's "sleepy time". When your child wakes up and sees the sun image, they will know that they can get out of bed and start their day.

Any tool that can encourage an appropriate sleep pattern for a child will benefit the parents sleep pattern as well. The Good Night Lite is a win/win as far as I'm concerned.

Percy, The Perfectly Imperfect Chicken

To make a good children’s book you need illustrations that catch the reader’s eye and an engaging story-line that holds the child’s attention. It seems an easy formula but it doesn’t always work out that way. There are those books that are just magical. All the elements are just right. Recently I was given the opportunity to review the new book by Rick Rieser, and by my child's authority, I will say he produced a good book.

Percy, The Perfectly Imperfect Chicken is told in rhyme, which was quickly engaging to my child. The illustrations by Daniel Seward showing life on the farm were so full of color and light that we both loved to pause during the story just to look at the pictures. Just beautiful.

The message of Percy, The Perfectly Imperfect Chicken is that we are all perfect in our own way. That’s a lesson I try to instill in my children. And the fact that I am being asked to read “Percy” again and again, I know that the lesson will be learned.

Clementine Art

Clementine Art has shared some colors with Lily to see what she thought of their Soy Crayons. A set of 6 contains the colors of the rainbow; red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple.


The shape of the crayons conformed easily in her 8 year old hand and the side ridges helped her grip while she was busy creating her latest Masterpiece.

Clementine Art products are colored with vegetable, plant, and mineral pigments instead of artificial dyes, providing an innovative solution to chemically laden, artificially colored art supplies.

With the holidays approaching creative products are fantastic gifts. Help release that inner Monet. Please visit Clementine Art and check out all of their beautiful colors and products.

Ecostore USA

I've had the chance to try products from Ecostore USA. No Nasty Chemicals is their tagline and that drew me in. Do I want to wash the dishes my family eats from with soap containing nasty chemicals? No way.



This dish soap contains Palm and coconut based ionic, non-ionic and anionic surfactants, Mineral hydroxide and Natural citrus oil. It cut through the grease and had a very light, pleasant scent. A little goes a long way. Perfect when everything we use these days needs to be economical.

Our dog Benny got in on the action by trying out the Herbal Fresh Shampoo.


This soap created a light lather and left Benny with a shiny coat. And the fact that this shampoo has No Nasty Chemicals makes bathtime a little less stressful since our dog licks/eats/drinks just about everything in his reach. (He licked the bubbles a couple of times :-> )


If you would like a chance to win $25 of Ecostore product head over to my other site Ann Again... and again and enter to win. Good luck!

Five For Fighting

A tough day at work was swept away. A rough day with the kids was forgotten. And a couple was brought closer together. All this while at a Five For Fighting show.

While waiting for the show to begin I was taken with the crowd. I'm used to seeing couples enjoying a night out, but at this show, what stood out most, were parents with their children. The message and melodies of John Ondrasik are felt strongly by young and old alike.

Being accompanied on guitar, John Ondrasik (a.k.a. Five For Fighting) started strong on the piano with "Changes" from his latest release "Slice". He continued with new tunes “Tuesday” and “Slice” then told the audience that he had received an American flag from a family in the audience. Their son had died in Iraq and his wishes were for John to receive his flag. At that point John gently started to play "Superman". Incredibly moving.

John smoothly transitioned to the guitar to play “65 Mustang” that comes with a fantastic family back story. During the evening you knew that not only were you listening to a great musician but a terrific story teller.

More great songs followed, "I Just Love You", "The Riddle", "World". But I have to say the highlight for me was his acapella version of "Hope". "You gotta have hope / You gotta have something / There's always a reason to break / You gotta have hope / 'Cause nothin' else will save the day."

With this message Five For Fighting sent us on our way, feeling better, feeling hopeful and wanting the evening to start all over again.


***Eternally grateful to One2One Network for this incredible experience***

Oceana

If you would like your Holiday gift to continue to give after the wrapping has been recycled and we roll into a new year please consider checking out Oceana's "Adopt A Creature" program.

Oceana campaigns to protect and restore the world's oceans. Recently they held an Ocean Heroes contest and found an inspiring story of volunteering from 12-year-old North Carolina resident Casey Sokolovic. Casey volunteers for a local sea turtle rescue center and, as part of her rescue efforts; she baked thousands of cookies in the shape of Sea Turtles, and rose over $3,000 in bake sales.

With Casey’s efforts in mind, Oceana has found a way to provide shoppers an alternative way of giving while supporting their work and restoring marine life. Through www.Oceana.org/adopt shoppers can virtually adopt 10 different creatures and receive ocean-themed cookie cutters, or plush toys. The cookie kit also includes a very yummy sugar cookie recipe that has my daughters seal-of-yumminess approval. It was terrific fun to watch my daughters and their friends have fun in the kitchen making the dough and cutting out shapes of dolphins, penguins, and octopus. The most fun was in the eating of course!

Please visit Oceana’s website www.Oceana.org/adopt to learn more about this wonderful gift giving opportunity. It is a beautiful, informative site. You can learn more on how to donate to a worthy cause, help someone become the virtual parent of an ocean animal, and create fun family time in the kitchen.

Busy People's Fast & Frugal Cookbook

It's no surprise to anyone that really knows me that I am not the cook in our family. When I met my future husband, his love of cooking, and his wonderful ability with food, made him the clear winner in the kitchen wars.

Now we’re married with 2 children, and he still does a majority of the dinners. There are times when I feel guilty, but he tells me that cooking is enjoyable for him, a great way to relax after work. For me cooking is work! I don't know why, but I just get so anxious. I love to eat, but putting items together just isn't where my strength lies. (Appreciating fine meals? No problem!)

I have tried various cookbooks to help me get over my anxiety and was recently given the opportunity to read "Busy People's Fast & Frugal Cookbook" by Dawn Hall. The oldest of seven children Dawn learned early on how to be frugal. Her life story is intriguing and very touching. You feel that she has written this cookbook to help us all eat healthy on a very tight budget. (I don’t know about you but that’s where my families at right now!) I feel the recipes are completely do-able and her little pep talks before each recipe help me lose the anxiety and become excited to cook.

If cooking doesn’t take you to your happy place, but you would like it to be fun and delicious, please pick-up a copy of "Busy People's Fast & Frugal Cookbook" by Dawn Hall. She will help you, and your family, eat healthy on a budget.