You know, once upon a time before children, I had the luxury of sleeping in. Even before that once upon a time way back in college and high school, I found getting up in the morning easy and I got up EARLY. Now, sleeping in just doesn’t happen because my two little preschoolers have a morning routine that can not be altered. It’s very important for both of them for things to be almost completely the same every day.

Our routine during the week starts off with getting up really early to get dad off to the bus stop, because we only have one car. My kids have to get dressed first, otherwise I would have ten more minutes to sleep in every morning, and I really enjoy sleeping now that I have kids. So we get dressed, take dad to his bus, and get back home for breakfast. Breakfast varies every morning depending on their mood, we have cereal, oatmeal, bananas, milk and I have coffee. At breakfast, sometimes I’m not that good at sitting at the table with the kids. I like to use that 20 minutes to get the dishes done, clean the counters or check my e-mail. We usually have a much better morning if I put everything down and start off our day talking to them. Helping Zoe prepare for her day at preschool by asking her what she’s going to learn about is much more productive then not spending time with her. Even Miles loves to talk and I really enjoy his conversation skills. He’s quite the conversationalist these days. So I’m working to have more meaningful memories in our morning routine.

Florida Orange Juice suggests that meaningful memories be a part of every morning routine. Families spend too much time rushing to get things done and aren’t connecting as much before they start their day. But despite the hustle and bustle that weekday mornings often bring, finding time to briefly connect over regular activities can set the tone for the day ahead. I’ve certainly found that to be true with my children and their moods. To help families get the emotional and physical fuel needed to start their day off right, the Florida Department of Citrus recently partnered with parenting expert and author, Dr. Michele Borba and nutritionist and author, Elizabeth Ward, to offer simple and healthy morning solutions.

One of the biggest suggestions is to use the morning time as “unplugged time”. And as you read above that’s difficult for me. Putting down my e-mail to give my children more of my time should be an easy thing to do, but it’s actually quite a challenge, but I am trying and I urge you all to try with me. We’re also working on not turning on the TV when breakfast time is over. Additionally, a nutritious breakfast has been associated with weight loss and weight maintenance, as well as improved nutrient intake, so sit down with your family around the breakfast table – you’ll help each person get a good start to the day.

To learn more about adding g a meaningful morning to your daily routine check out Florida Citrus’s Facebook Page

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of the Florida Department of Citrus and received an OJ Gift Pack and a promotional item as a thank you for my participation

Personally, I’ve been making changes in my life to live more healthy for almost a year now and I’m quite happy with my progress. I’m eating more greens and cooking healthy for the entire family. I’m taking more time in making a meal plan and using lots of veggies as a filler. Any snacking in our house includes fruit and veggies.

As a family, I would say that our road to living healthy is a long one but one we work on a little bit every day. We have quite a bit of rain and colder weather here in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, I would say that personally I’m cold all year round and getting the kids to be more physical takes a lot of effort on my part. I have to get out there, have fun and show them that I’m willing to run and be crazy for them to go out and be crazy. Of course, being wild and crazy for the kids is actually helping my activity level as well so I’m winning two fold. Being an active example to the kids we go from….

To…..

I love seeing them work together to have a great time.

We have also decided that as a family we’re going to start walking every night after dinner and on nights that it’s raining outside we’re going to use the trampoline and our Kinect for some indoor exercise. We’re all learning about how healthy dessert can be. Fruit with a fat free whipped topping is quite an exciting thing for all of us.

So My Steps to Living Healthy:

Eat Smaller Meals – use a small plate, include protein, and low fat foods, with extra veggies

Increase your activity – lots of silliness, running, dancing, playing Kinect, take small steps, any activity counts as increased activity

Don’t Give Up!

Weight Watchers Smart Ones is making it easier to stay on track with a healthy meal plan without spending time on prep work beforehand. Their products provide a variety of delicious, convenient and portion controlled meals and snacks that contain lean proteins, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. And now they are offering two new breakfast items – like the new Egg, Sausage & Cheese Wrap and the French Toast with Turkey Sausage. Plus, the packaging tells you the Weight Watchers PointsPlus values in each serving, allowing you to conveniently plan for the day. Visit www.eatyourbest.com for more information.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Weight Watchers Smart Ones and received a promotional item and coupons to facilitate my review.”

I had a New Years Resolution to start eating healthier and we’ve been succeeding. Life long changes take more time to completely fulfill than resolutions that most people quit in the first week, and seeing as how it’s February, most of you have probably given up on your resolutions. Deep Breath! It’s ok.

Some of my Tips on changing your lifestyle practices:

Use smaller plates when eating

Fill your plate 3/4 of the way with fruits, veggies, and lots of greens

Take the stairs as often as possible and carry your kids while you’re at it

Walk the Dog

Or even better Run with the dog

Playing active games with the kids, dancing, riding the plasma car, and a healthy game of chase

Park farther away when shopping

Stop the coffee runs (difficult but coffee at home gets the same results and is way cheaper and lower in calories)

So, to get to the point of this post……..

Dannon Yogurt feels the same way about resolutions as I do. It’s better to take small steps towards your goal of living a healthier lifestyle. That’s why they have a fun Dannon Small Steps promotional giveaway going on. Take Small Steps to a Better You from January 23 – February 28th.

What you could win:

• Three (3) Grand Prizes: free groceries for a year, valued at $7,800.

• Fifty (50) First Prizes: free groceries for a month, valued at $550.

• One hundred (100) Second Prizes: will win free groceries for a week, valued at $150.

To Enter:

Visit Dannon Small Steps and enter your email address and UPC from any Dannon product.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Dannon and received a coupon and gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate

So if someone asked me what I was wearing the day I met Samantha Bee, I would have to say, Lauren by Ralph Lauren! Oh yeah, I was wearing the pants that Ralph Lauren sent me when I filmed a commercial spot with Samantha Bee. Now my shirt that day was blue, and they were using a blue screen so I had to change my shirt and because of the fact that my head would have been dismembered from my body that’s the lovely conversation that I had with Samantha. Umm, yeah we talked about my how cute the commercial would have been with my head floating in the sky next to her in Santa’s Sleigh. Perhaps if I hadn’t been next to hyperventilating over the fact that I was bout to be on camera again, I might have been able to ask her something like what is it like to work on the Daily Show, and how can you be so absolutely hilarious and keep a straight face? Anyways, I’m going to try to get back on topic and actually talk about the pants now. LOL!!

I’m a Mombassador for Ralph Lauren which means they send me stuff and then I tell you my honest opinion of them. So these pants they sent me are from their line Lauren by Ralph Lauren. They are soft, and long which means I can wear heals and they still look great on me. So the pants are comfortable. They fit nicely and I was quite surprised that they fit so well, and were even a little on the big side for me. I guess that’s because I’ve lost 15 pounds since August. I need to stop losing weight or I’m going to need to replace my entire wardrobe. What else can I say about the pants? I look great. I don’t like that they say dry clean only and the price is a bit high, but for a really nice pair of pants that will last for a while, I will spend 100.00 on them. Oh and they don’t seem to wrinkle very easily which I do adore!

About Lauren by Ralph Lauren Sanderson Pants
This classic-fitting dress pant exudes tailored sophistication in a sleek stretch construction.

• Standard-rise waist with belt loops. Zip fly with faux-horn button closure.
• Sleek hip, straight leg.
• Angled hand pockets at the hips. No back pockets for a sleek look.
• 32" inseam.
• 63% polyester, 32% viscose, 5% elastane. Machine washable. Imported.
• Price: $109.00

"I am a participant in a Mom Central Consulting campaign for Ralph Lauren and received a pair of Lauren by Ralph Lauren pants to help facilitate my review.” Meeting Samantha Bee was a part of a different campaign with another company that I can’t mention here because this post is actually for Ralph Lauren, I just thought my conversation with Samantha Bee was pretty funny, and I was wearing the pants in the photo so that’s relevant content. Transparency is everything!

The controversy over the HFCS post I wrote has become quite popular, or un-popular I should say. The last time I had such a popular post that wasn’t a giveaway was when I was writing about my organs falling out and the anxiety I live with. Let me tell you, this mess has caused my anxiety to come back a lot quicker than I expected it to. I usually only deal with the anxiety once a month but this might be a long month for me. With popular bloggers writing about me, some linking to me and other’s respecting me and my site; I wonder if I actually have a thick enough skin to seriously partake in this Blogging Community. If I am going to take on controversial posts I need to develop that thick skin quickly!

I took the Corn Refiners campaign because every time I support a company like Kellogg’s or Sara Lee I get nasty e-mails about myself as a mother or about the health of my children. I do care about my children and if you knew me personally you would think I was a sugar Nazi. I honestly don’t care about HFCS at all, and I never said I did in the post. I said I think of it as I do sugar, and I limit sugar of any kind in my children’s diets so much so that my children’s doctor had to tell me to let them have a little bit. If I limit it all the time, when they are in an environment that I’m not there to control then they’ll over indulge. My kids don’t get juice, cookies or ice cream unless it’s a special treat and those are rare. My husband gave them some cotton candy the other day and I thought I was going to have a heart attack on the spot. But in moderation, a little processed food or sugar of any kind is not going to kill my kids. I cook dinner for my kids often, but I’m also a mom of convenience and I’m not afraid to share that with my readers. I’m not a crunchy and I’ve never pretended to be. When I shop for foods, I look for any of the key words that mean sugar, syrup, HFCS, glucose, fructose, and sugar itself, I don’t buy things that have sugar as a main ingredient. I also look at the calories, fat, and number of sugars in the nutritional information. That is what I think all moms should do. Set limits.

So why is it so bad to write a post raising awareness? I was completely up front with who the presenters/experts were. I even mentioned who each one worked for and who they were associated with. I knew it was slanted by the Corn Refiners and anyone looking at my post should have been able to see that fact. I even wonder how many people actually Read my post before jumping on their I hate HFCS and Corn Refiners band wagons. Did you even notice that we might be dealing with a new branding here. I wanted to raise awareness that HFCS might be rebranding to corn sugar.

I took this campaign because I knew it was controversial and that I would get comments. I never expected to be so honored by being linked to on numerous other blogs. In fact it makes me think that yes I was under paid by the Corn Refiners and Mom Central because my reach is much larger than I expected it to be. In all honestly, I want to thank those of you that are using me as an example. You have raised my traffic and stats and have raised even more awareness about the Corn Refiners and their plans than I ever could have on my own. I’m just a little disgusted at some of the comments being left on those posts! You all want to send me into Mommy Over Protective Monster over here. So while I go out and get some fresh air, you’ll have to forgive me for not leaving comments on all of your posts or stirring the pot anymore than this response here.

I appreciate my readers because you were all very kind and left informative comments.

To the Rest of you…Understand that there is a blogger, a person with feelings that is writing these posts. Attack the content and not the person. Dragging my name or any of the other blogger’s names through the mud because we wrote about something you do not agree with is only hurtful. Understand, my opinions cannot be bought. I write what I want to write about regardless of someone paying me or not. I pick and choose and you may not agree with me.

Crest Pro Health is pretty, purple and makes my mouth smell great. I always find it funny when my daughter says, “Mommy, what do you smell like?”. So I ask her, is it a good smell or a bad smell, so she takes another whiff of me and on this occasion she says, “Mommy You smell Good”. So I tell her, Oh that is Mommy’s New Mouth Rinse. I still haven’t let her see the bottle because of how much she likes the color purple. I just can’t let her see it!

I’ve been using it now for two weeks every night and during the day. I like to use it before I leave the house to go out. I hate having a stinky mouth when I’m out with friends. So using Crest Pro Health Complete Rinse has been a blessing. When I run out I’ll have to decide if I’m going to keep using it. I’m not sure that I will only because I have a bad habit of not buying stuff that is only for me. My husband doesn’t use a mouth rinse and I just can’t see me purchasing it. I should, I’m just being realistic here!

Why Do I like It?

It’s purple, great packaging and presentation!

It uses fluoride to prevent cavities

It strengthens enamel

It tastes good, it is very minty and I like Mint flavor.

It kills bad breath and freshens it.

Why I probably won’t buy it…

Even though I love using a mouth wash, I just don’t buy them. I don’t remember to unless I have a super duper coupon and it’s on sale. It is something that I can and do live without. Until my dentist actually tells me to use it every day I probably won’t.

“I wrote this review while participating in a test drive campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Crest and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

Tonight I’m really going to try and make the twitter party for Ralph Lauren. I was chosen as one of the ambassadors working with Ralph Lauren and Mom Central. I’m really excited to be representing them because we already use some of their products as it is. My sunglasses are Ralph Lauren, and so are my husband’s PJ’s.

Party:

What: Ralph Lauren #RLGang Twitter Party
When: Thursday, August 19th from 8-9 pm EST
Why: Talk about the new Ralph Lauren digital storybook, a children’s book that gives Moms a unique way to explore Ralph Lauren clothing and their new fall line. You’ll also be entered to win a back-to-school outfit from Ralph Lauren for your child or one of six $50 AMEX gift cards.
Hashtag: #RLGang
Host: @MomCentral and @RalphLauren

More information: http://bit.ly/9DE7jr

Prizes:

You’ll also be entered to win a back-to-school outfit from Ralph Lauren for your child or one of six $50 AMEX gift cards.

Savings Code:

RLG_MOMSTART 10 % off any Full Price Purchase

To use on-line purchase!

I am entering a pasta photo contest with Mom Central and Ronzoni Smart Taste Pasta and I just can’t decide which one to choose. I have to decide by Next Wednesday. Can you help me choose. Leave me the number in the comments or tweet it to me so I can decide which one to submit. Thank You!

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)

This post is just because I really need your help, but I’m probably supposed to include the

“I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Ronzoni and received products necessary to facilitate my candid review and photo contest entry. In addition, I received a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

just to keep everyone happy. I really need some help though!

At our old house the only filter we used for our heater was 3M’s brand Filtrete. They have the most options for filter types, our favorite being the allergen filter. That’s what I called it anyway, they have good, better and best; and we were using best because it captures at least 90We had two large hairy dogs and the hair was everywhere, so it helped quite a bit to be using an allergen filter.  The only reason we aren’t still using t% of the large airborne particles. The only reason m is because the heater in our new house uses a 2” filter and we can’t find a 2” in their brand. 3M’s brand Filtrete wants moms to have time to worry about other things, and not how clean the house is.

When it comes to the routine of cleaning, homeowners tend to be more concerned with stacks of dirty dishes (66 percent), piles of laundry (58 percent) and dust balls on their carpet (57 percent), according to a survey commissioned by 3M, maker of Filtrete air cleaning filters. But they often forget about other areas of the home – such as bedding, shower doors and even stuffed animals – that can be breeding grounds for bacteria, mildew, dust mites and foul odors.

To keep your mind at ease, they have teamed up with Healthy Housekeeper Laura Dellutri, author of The Overworked Mom’s Stress Free Home Keeping to offers these tips:

Start at the Top: Ceiling fans, tall mantles and bookshelves, and the tops of door frames tend to subscribe to the “out of sight, out of mind” motto. These areas often harbor dust, so it’s important to wipe them down regularly to help remove dust buildup. Start at the top and work your way down, collecting all of the dust and dirt that falls to the floor while you’re cleaning.

Wipe Down Windows and Walls: Don’t clean windows the old fashioned way – newspaper can cause ink residue and paper towels leave lint behind. Your best bet is to use microfiber cleaning cloths and a professional window squeegee to get a streak-free, spotless shine. To prevent streaks on shower doors and walls, apply lemon oil to the door twice a month. This will help repel soap scum and shampoo, while also adding a nice shine.

Think Horizontally: Dust mites are nearly everywhere. In fact, the American Lung Association estimates that roughly four out of five homes in the United States have detectable levels of dust mite allergen in at least one bed. Reduce dust mites by encasing your mattress and pillows, and wash your bedding in hot water about once a week. Also, since dust mites are microscopic, place strips of duct tape on the mattress case to prevent the dust mites from sneaking through.

Clean the In-between: While cleaning what you can see, don’t forget to clean what you can’t see – the air you breathe. Use a high performance air filter in the home, such as the Filtrete 1” Ultimate Allergen Reduction filter from 3M, to help capture particles such as pollen, smoke, dust mite debris and pet dander from the air that passes through the filter. Be sure to change your filter at the start of every season, or every three months.

Freeze the Fur: Stuffed animals can harbor dust mites so it’s important to pay special attention to them. Place stuffed animals in a large plastic bag and freeze them for four to five hours. Remove them from the freezer and plastic bag, and use a vacuum with a HEPA filter to remove any leftover dust particles.

Finish With Floors: To keep floors in tip-top shape, vacuum and clean them weekly. You can easily make your own floor cleaner by adding a few drops of mild liquid dish detergent to a gallon of water. Hot water can break down floor finishes after time so use water that is barely warm. Finally, don’t forget to clean the floor under large pieces of furniture, which may require you to temporarily move them elsewhere. Corners of rooms and the back of closets often are overlooked, so be sure to clean these areas as well.

Save:

Check out Filtrete Offers and Promotions

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Filtrete and received a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

I’m quite thankful for the world of blogging, for days like today when I just don’t feel like being social or leaving the house. I will be taking the kids out to the gym today to see their new best friend, one of our neighbors. They just love her. Then we’re getting haircuts, the rest of the evening I’ll be going around the blog sharing my thankfulness of all of you.

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the

majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.

Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.

NIV 1 CH 29:11

I’m quite thankful right now for the move that God provided us with last September. We have a wonderful neighborhood and awesome neighbors. We live close to grocery stores and can have pizza delivered to our door. I’m a huge fan of Pizza, I spent six years working for one pizza company or another. My children are absolutely the biggest blessing in the world.

I wanted to spend a little time thanking some blogging friends who have made great things possible by teaching me something or helping me with an opportunity or two.

This is Christine, From Dates To Diapers or @YoungMommy, Lori A Cowboys Wife, My Wooden Spoon or @Acowboyswife, and of course Stacy From Mom Central or @momcentral. I met the three of these powerful women last July at the Sears/Kmart Home Design Summit for Bloggers. Christine is quite a voice on twitter (not to mention her blog and everywhere else she writes) and often retweets my tweets and I can’t thank her enough for her help. Lori, has been answering questions since I began blogging in 2008. She is one of the sweetest Texas Mommies you will ever meet. Stacy and her company allowed me to be a Frigidaire Test Drive Mom this year and it was so much fun and a privilege. She often has other campaigns that she shares with mommy bloggers, but if you ever get the chance to listen to her, DO IT. One, she’s a crack up, Two, in between all of the jokes and laughter she pours out great advice. All three of these women do. I’m grateful for Sears for allowing me the opportunity to meet these girls. It is through encouragement from women like these that I stay out of depression. I find myself constantly struggling with depression, even today I feel like it’s a little worse than normal. So I find myself writing my way through it and remembering a happy time.

My thankfulness isn’t complete every week unless I also mention how thankful I am for my children, even when they are screaming at each other. This week we have been blessed with good health. Thank you God for everything you do in my life.