Just wanted to let you know that the Babo Botanicals Special Holiday Promotion will not be effective until December 10, so look for the 50% promo code on Tuesday. There was a blip in communication regarding the start date of the promotion.
My apologies for any confusion.
Kmart and Sears Free In Store Pick Up Program
Are you getting busier now that Christmas is upon us? The holidays seem to be the busiest time of the year. Between buying live tree (which we hope to do this weekend) decorating, baking, shopping, untangling lights, hosting Christmas parties (not that we do this) wrapping (or unwrapping), regular life doesn’t seem to stop amidst it all. You can only read so many articles on ‘holiday how-tos’ before you realize that unlike the miracle of the Christ child or Santa squeezing down chimneys, there is no Christmas miracle for making the holidays less hectic. The holiday season is what it is. You can, however, find ways to reduce stress and frown less. One way is to consider using free in store pickup and earning more points while shopping. Both Sears and Kmart offer $10 back in points when you spend $59 and free in store pickup, letting you earn more points while shopping thousands of gifts online in the comfort of your own home before picking up your items in store in 5 minutes guaranteed (or whenever you’re ready). With in store pickup you will avoid lines, crowded stores and the wasted time of searching for just the right gift. To bring an extra smile to your face, if you cannot pick up your order, a friend or relative can and pay in store with cash. Holiday shopping at Sears and Kmart will earn you more points so why not try the free in store pickup at Sears or Kmart? Then think about what will you do with the time you freed up and your extra points? Maybe you will spend time volunteering for the Salvation Army ringing the “Santa bell”, volunteer at a women’s shelter, make Christmas ornaments with your children or simply putting your feet up and enjoying your lighted Christmas tree in a dark room. Learn more at Sears: http://bit.ly/HL896t and Kmart: http://kmrt.us/1bmIoRk
Now this holiday event does have a time limit on it: The ONLINE portion of the event is from Saturday 12/7/13 starting at 6PM CT through to Tuesday 12/10/13 at 9AM CT. IN-STORE event is on Sunday, 12/8/13 ONLY, which is tomorrow!
Presented by Mami Innovative Media, this is a sponsored post on behalf of Sears and Kmart. All opinions expressed here are my own.
I think I did better writing down funny things as they happened this week so it is officially time to laugh with the Goulds again! We have joined The Mommyhood Chronicles for Week #7 – for us – in the Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.
5. We were talking about the Prince and Duchess of Wales and our Amelia Bedilia said, “They live in whales?” I believe she knew what we meant but was trying to be funny because she repeated it to her brother next to her and then they high-fived.
4. Love the honest laughs of my children. Nothing makes us smile more than to hear their genuine laugh.
3. The kittens were their playful selves again. Our three year old son was told to clean the crayon off the patio door and while he was wiping, Freckles was trying to grab Jr.’s cloth!
2. We had one of our sons get sick yesterday, which made our older son paranoid about getting sick. My son applied DiGize essential oil to help ward off a tummy ache. My husband pulled a fast one on him by asking him which way he applied the DiGize clockwise or counter clockwise. My son replied, “Counter clockwise.” My husband proceeded to tell him if he circled counter clockwise everything would come up, but if he had of applied it clockwise everything would stay down. My son goes, “Arghhhh!” And my husband comes in our bedroom laughing that he couldn’t believe he fooled our son. I chuckled and told him to go tell him the difference before he thought he’d be sick!
1. Last night while I was working on my laptop our children were all watching the movie “The Croods” next to me. I loved hearing them all burst out laughing. I was listening to their laughter more than the movie so now I have to watch it for myself! Gotta love the sound of children laughing! This is kind of a repetition of #4, oh well! I was doubly blessed this week to think of it twice! 😉
About a month ago my 14 year old daughter “B” and I went to a Green Expo to promote our farm. We collected a few business cards, one of which was a local sheep farmer. I finally got around to visiting their website and discovered they sold wool dryer balls. These wool dryer balls are handmade by M.
When my older girls were little I had to stop using dryer sheets because a couple of them broke out with rashes. I never liked the expense of liquid fabric softener so we’ve basically gone without. I have used a rag with vinegar on it to get rid of static cling.
That’s why I was excited to try the wool dryer balls come in as an alternative. We have been using them since the weekend and they are working. We do not seem to have to turn the dryer on for a second cycle on our larger loads so it is doing what I hoped they’d do in reducing dryer time by soaking up extra wetness. No one has said anything about static cling yet so I am hoping that will be rectified as well.
I think I’ll get my mom a set of dryer balls the next time she comes to visit.
Do you have any dryer sheet remedies?
In October I went into the city of Chicago for a business meeting with Moms.com and after the meeting we walked to Willis Tower. The photos below are of Chicago at night from Willis Tower. It was really cool.
Willis Tower, or the formerly known Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States. Sears was actually the company that built it to house all its employees in one place.
The Sears Tower became Willis Tower when a London company rented out a large space in the building and had the option to rename the building in its contract. And that’s exactly what they did.
When you visit Willis Tower you get to watch a little movie on the history of the building before you are escorted up to the Skydeck. On the Skydeck you can walk around, shop for gifts, look through the telescopes and walk out onto the “ledge”. The Ledge is a glass box basically and when you step out into it you can look down at the city of Chicago through glass. I was not brave enough to walk out onto the ledge, minding heights as I do.
I definitely recommend you visit Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) the next time you travel Chicago.
Ha! Getting into the habit of keeping track of our family’s funnies! These are not all necessarily from this past week though. Can’t believe I made it to six weeks of participating in The Mommyhood Chronicles Saturday Top Five Laughs! I think I’ve made it a habit or at least I hope so!
5. My husband was doing laundry and came out of the laundry room holding a skirt saying, “Really, we are keeping this?” It was “B’s” black skirt. It has a rip down the side. See the photo below. B said, “Yes, I need it” laughing. Then he proceeded to go on a tirade about how I throw out his holey clothes (I don’t throw them all out), but he’s right that I have literally ripped one of his old, holey t-shirts off of him in order to prove my point that it needed to be thrown out. Let’s just say B and I were more humored about the skirt than he was! He thinks it’s ridiculous that B wants to keep the ripped skirt.
4. I forgot this one on one of the other Saturday Top Five Laughs post. Padfoot, our dog, was barking so my husband went to the window of our room to see what he was going on about. Turns out Padfoot was barking at a caterpillar! The caterpillar was just out of his reach and he wanted to get it. Silly dog.
3. My husband has this particular way of raising and wiggling his eyebrows when he’s being goofy. Our youngest has started doing it. It’s very cute, though because his eyebrows are not as dark as his daddy’s it doesn’t have quite the same affect.
2. Our daughter “B” posted the above notice on a couple of our bedroom doors.
1. Bear in the house! We have a couple of those adorable animal hats with the mittens attached and my little guy kept coming up to us with it completely over his eyes growling at us. 😉
By now you all know how much I struggle with any sort of diet to help me lose weight. Most of you know I have been trying the Liquid Amino Diet for the past few weeks. See my post on Liquid Amino Diet Part 1 here.
As a recap….
Dr. Finsand developed the Amino Diet about 4 years ago after years of research and trials with his patients. The Liquid Amino diet is not about a quick fix, it is about a total and complete lifestyle change. The lifestyle change is accomplished through clean eating and ALL NATURAL homeopathic drops. Because of the healthy change in diet, you can expect to lose between .5-1 lb per day. Unlike other diets, the Amino Diet does not inject hormones for a total body shock, but instead focuses on teaching people how to eat clean without the shock of the system. This is one HUGE factor in keeping the weight off for extended periods of time.
Be sure to check out this video from a real Amino dieter who lost 85 pounds on the program.
Taking the Liquid Amino Diet was a breeze. It has an odd flavor, yet it’s not unpleasant by any means. Letting it sit under my tongue was a breeze and I normally allowed it to go over 20 seconds. What I struggled with was remembering to take it 15 minutes before my meals. I also struggled with consistency.
In our busy household we do not like to make several meals for each of the three main meal times so I am very use to eating whatever the rest of the family eats. In terms of “dieting” I struggle with eating differently and what I’ll say to my children. If I say I am trying to eat healthier, that will leave them questioning if our family meals are truly healthy. 95-99% of our meals are made from scratch, made with mostly organic ingredients etc. With a houseful of growing children, we do eat a lot of carbs. Because of this I really did not experience the weight loss I could or perhaps should have. I do know that when I happened to take the Liquid Amino Diet supplement consistently at least once or twice a day it did seem to curb my appetite. That’s always a good thing, right?
I like the fact there is coaching available with the Liquid Amino Diet, but I only reached out to my “coach” a couple of times and when I did she did have encouraging things to say. I probably should have reached out a lot more, even on a daily basis to take full advantage of a “cheerleading” section. Who doesn’t want to do well when someone is quietly cheering you on in the sidelines?
I think anything is worth a try and for that reason I would say give the Liquid Amino Diet a try but be consistent and keep your calories within that 1500 range and see what happens to the extra weight you so desperately desire to lose. Add a little exercise and I bet you lose a few more pounds than you expected.
Me? I always have high hopes and high aspirations in anything but always seem to fail when it comes to weight loss.
Enter the giveaway below to win your own Liquid Amino Diet:
Just wanted to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving! We are chillin’ at home as a family. We cooked our turkey overnight now we are in the throws of washing potatoes, making pie dough and preparing veggies. Robert is carving the turkey (which was homegrown and is so yummy!), I’m making cinnamon rolls and dinner rolls and the girls divided up the rest of the work among them and the younger ones.
Things I am thankful for this year are:
Wishing you a very grateful 2013 Thanksgiving!
I think toys are on every child’s Christmas wish list. What toys does your child want for Christmas? My friend and fellow blogger, Rachel at Yellow Tennessee, is hosting a LeapPad Ultra Giveaway, which is one of the toys on the Kmart Fab 15 list this year! There are a lot of great toys on the list, that’s for sure!
Rachel’s LeapPad Ultra Giveaway started at midnight and ends on December 11th. Enter below!
Good luck!
In light of Saturday’s Top Five Laughs post, thought I’d share this photo of Freckles at the beginning of her climb and Selene as she looks on because I think they look adorable!
Today the kittens were out in the snow for the first time and they batted at it! Sadly, I didn’t get a photo of it.
The kittens climbing all over the garage and my husband says they think it’s their own jungle gym and I tend to agree.
This week’s Wordless Wednesday is almost….wordless!
