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Things I Hate About the Country

Posted by Robert on September 25, 2011
in Family Stuff

This is a rare post from my husband, who may end up being a regular contributor because of his charming personality and wit. 😉

I have never been that interested in living in the country, but my dear wife has yearned to go back to her roots for years, so it has only been in recent years that I have been even open to the idea of moving to a more rural area. In the past few weeks the reasons for my hesitancy in living in the country have been renewed and I have decided there are definitely things I hate about it. Here they are:

1. The flies. They out number my children by a million.

2. The power outages that cut our supply to water and sewer. (Theresa here, we’ve had 2-3 power outages already!)

3. The long commute.

Theresa here, on the other hand, he’s very thankful for the extra space we are enjoying!

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Recap of Tween Academy

Posted by html404 on September 24, 2011
in Blog Stuff, Education, Family Stuff

This past Tuesday I had the privilege to co-host Teen Academy with five other bloggers (Connie, Brain Foggles , Jo-Lynne, Musings of a Housewife , Stephanie, And Twins make 5! , Liz, Thoughts of a Mommy and Jennifer, Mom Spotted, as we joined The Motherhood and host Rosalind Wiseman, who is a parenting expert and author of a New York Times bestselling book, Queen Bees and Wannabes (which the movie Mean Girls was based on)!

We discussed issues tweens face today, what our struggles were as mothers of tweens heading back to school (sweaty, stinky tween boys was one!) and each participant offered their sage advice, empathy and commaradie. Rosalind had some wise advice as to how to handle specific issues.

Overall there was a general sense of appreciation for the hour we spent together online and we look forward to this coming week’s Tween Academy on TheMotherhood, sponsored by Unilever.

Be sure to join us on Tuesday, September 27th at Noon EST at The Motherhood or the direct link http://www.themotherhood.com/talk/show/id/62264

Also, Rosalind has some guest appearances coming up on TV that you may want to tune into – She will be appearing with Anderson Cooper and Dr. Phil at 8 p.m. ET on Oct. 9 and 14 (check local listings for channels). Here is her recent blog post about the appearances: http://rosalindwiseman.com/2011/09/19/stop-bullying-speak-up-campaign-can-change-lives/

Disclosure: I am being compensated for my time by Unilever and The Motherhood, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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Camera Woes

Posted by html404 on September 19, 2011
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff

I have had some camera woes lately. My boys, with good intentions of course, knocked out a lense. Thankfully it was fixable. Then during our move we somehow lost our camera cord that allows us to download photos to our computer. We still have yet to find it. That means this blog is sadly missing some personal photos of recent weeks. That is the extent of my camera woes. Pray that I find that cord soon and then I can finally update you all on our family happenings!

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Tween Academy Class – Tomorrow!

Posted by html404 on September 19, 2011
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff, Parenting

Do you have tweens in your home? So do I! Ever wonder how to help them do better in school, deal with friends (or bullies) or just plan be more prepared to get into the swing of school again after summer vacation? Yeah…me too. There’s help just around the corner!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, September 20, at noon ET, The Motherhood is hosting its first Tween Academy class and YOU are invited! Believe it or not, I will be one of the 6 co-hosts for this class. We will talking about Tweens and Heading Back to School with host Rosalind Wiseman, who is a parenting expert and author of a New York Times bestselling book!

Here are the details:

What: A class offering advice, suggestions and empathy when it comes to tweens and issues surrounding going back to school. It’s all part of Tween Academy on TheMotherhood, sponsored by Unilever.

About the class: From making new friends to managing classes and homework, heading back to school can be filled with sweat-inducing moments. During this class, we’ll talk about how to get back into the school routine and offer advice on guiding tweens through classes, after-school sports, rough spots with friends, bullying and more.

When: Tuesday, September 20, at noon ET

Where: On TheMotherhood, here – http://www.themotherhood.com/talk/show/id/62264

Who: Renowned parenting expert Rosalind Wiseman, author of the New York Times bestseller Queen Bees and Wannabes (which the movie Mean Girls was based on), will host the class with six blogger co-hosts…

Connie, Brain Foggles
Jo-Lynne, Musings of a Housewife
Yours Truly, Theresa, Faith and Family Reviews
Stephanie, And Twins make 5!
Liz, Thoughts of a Mommy
Jennifer, Mom Spotted

This class is not a webinar or a phone call, it is all on chat, so no need to worry about background noise – we moms have been there and done that! You can even stay in your pjs if you want to!

Hope to see some of you there!

Disclosure: I am being compensated for my time by Unilever and The Motherhood, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

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NEW! Health and Garden Tuesday Post

Posted by html404 on September 6, 2011
in All Natural Products, Family Stuff, Health and Garden Tuesday, Health and Nutrition, Home

I just wanted to share a little testimony for this week’s post on Health and Garden Tuesday. Over the weekend I went with a friend to give a Raindrop to a client who won a free Raindrop with a qualifying order at one of my friend’s meetings. I was acting as her assistant and had to ring out two towels with hot water. The only thing is I made the water too hot and burned my thumb so much so that it started smarting and blistering right away. I was not able to put anything on it until Sunday morning and when I did I applied two Young Living essential oils: Purification and Lavender. The blistering is basically gone and what remains does not even hurt. I have never used an essential oil on a burn before and am very glad that I did since the pain of the burn is not as long lasting as it usually is. My burn really benefited from using Young Living essential oils.

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A Long Lost Motivation Monday Post

Posted by html404 on September 5, 2011
in Family Stuff, Monday Motivation

Yes, this summer I have been pretty much absent from this blog. It has been an incredibly busy summer with working two and three days away from home and then our move a month ago. Whew, we still have not quite recovered from our move yet as there is still so much more we have to do at our townhouse, including moving stuff over. Then there is the added work here at our new home with so much more lawn care and planning for next year!

This week’s motivation, at least for today, was just to clean and relax. Relaxing was actually accomplished, while cleaning was not. We went on an outing as a family and for the most part just relaxed.

On the docket for the rest of the week is cleaning, working at Mrs. A’s farm three days and a bit of work on my own business.

Later this week I hope to introduce you to a new addition to our family….nope, I am not expecting! But he has brought a lot of fun and enjoyment to most of us. So stay tuned!

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Patio Furniture

Posted by html404 on August 15, 2011
in Family Stuff, Furniture

I know summer is ending, but with our move it makes me covet new patio furniture. We have yet to move our old, worn, heavy picnic table over from our old house. I think part of my husband is loathe to move the heavy thing, yet another part of him doesn’t want to see the hideous thing again, even though it has served us well over the years. There just comes a time when change is a good thing. The problem is we’d have to buy TWO new patio sets to fit our family of ten as I don’t think they make sets bigger than 6-8.

I really like the glass topped ones, but it seems like everyone has those. I’d like something nice, functional and that will last a while.

This one is very nice, but not very practical for us, maybe if it was just my husband and I, and we entertained a lot.

If it wasn’t dark outside I’d go take a picture of our patio and see if you all had some decorating ideas for me! But it’s too dark to take a picture right now and I will probably forget to do a follow up of this post.

So for now I dream of creating an oasis on my sunny patio…

This post is brought to you by your friends at http://www.canadapost.ca/shopper

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Separation Anxiety And a Move!

Posted by html404 on August 4, 2011
in Family Stuff

We all know what separation anxiety is, it’s when a small child is fearful and full of anxiety when separated from his/her mother, right? Or is that all it is? What about moms, can we have separation anxiety? I believe we can and to be honest, I am suffering from it this week. Actually it just sort of happened overnight as our house takes on that hollow sound…..hollow sound, you ask…..

We are moving! This is a huge move for us, in more ways than one.

We have lived where we are for the past 16 years. Our current home has served us well, but we have really outgrown it. I think we have been at that point since child number six. We love our current town. It is a great little town. We love our neighborhood. It’s quiet. We have had the same neighbors around us for all of that time or over half of that time. We’ve had the same phone number…and all of that is about to change.

It is a mixed bag of feelings. Truly it is. I mean who would have thought that I would be sad to lose my phone number? Until we ran out of space, I really liked our house and will miss it. There are many memories here. We moved here as newlyweds. We became parents to eight children here. Our last three children were born in this house. It’s been my only home since moving to the U.S. 17 years ago.

The catch is, I have always dreamed of living in the country. I have longed for my children to enjoy the pleasures of country living and for the past three years we have been doing that by driving to the country during the summer. But it is getting tiring driving back and forth and being away from home so many days. Therefore, we decided to forgo our plans to farm at the farm incubator when we came across two homes each on 10 acres or more…..of course we looked at them!

By the time we decided on one and got back to the owners, it was no longer available. 🙁 Disappointing to say the least. It was a lovely piece of property. So we decided we did not want to lose out on the other.

This all happened within a short period of time in June-July. It still seems a bit unreal since we are still in between homes. If pinching didn’t hurt, I’d be asking folks to pinch me to be sure it was all real and not a dream.

We are moving to a more rural area, but still within the Chicago suburbs. We will have access to land, a larger house with LOTS of storage AND 3 potties. We are very excited!

Cartoon by yours truly (inspired by June Cleaver Nirvana) because I did not want to pay to use a comic strip! Please note: The order of children is not typical. Our younger children usually get first dibs on bathroom rights due to obvious reasons! 😉 Also note, my oldest does not find the humor in this silly drawing.

This week has not only been filled with physically moving but moving electronically. It was frustrating to find out our current phone/internet provider does not service our new home for internet, which led to more phone calls. But I think we are all set to go.

Now we just need to get everything moved to the new house. Let’s just say that being between two homes is not ideal! We are grateful to a new acquaintance/fellow farmer for their generous offer to help us by providing their 3/4 ton truck and trailer to get us all moved this weekend. We are amazed who the Lord uses sometimes, truly amazing. We have not even met this couple, I inquired about their farm as they farm using horses, something I have always been intrigued about and they live within minutes of our new home. A few emails later their offer came. The generosity of strangers, plus they are open to us coming to their farm to learn about what they are doing. No, I am not saying we’ll be farming with horses, but it is a compelling idea. My husband prefers machines, there’s something more macho and manly about tractors than horses….I think.

Here’s to separation anxiety, it will pass and a the start of a new chapter in our lives….

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Review ~ Squid Balm

Posted by Professor on July 31, 2011
in All Natural Products, Baby Products, Eco Friendly Products, Family Stuff, Gift Ideas, Handmade Items, Health and Nutrition, Organic, Personal Care Products, Products for Dad, Products for Mom

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

Squid Balm

A Vast Variety of Vegan beauty goodies….

Vegan products that are Nut-free, Bee0free, phthalate-free, paraben-free, and gluten-free.

These products are great for sensitive skin types!

Solid product means Squid Balm is TSA friendly as well as eco-friendly.

There is a myriad of choices on Squid Balms Website ranging from skin and body car to hair care! The products are scented or unscented…something to suit everyone’s taste!

OUR REVIEW:

We received the following products:

UNSCENTED ~ Squid Balm Solid Lotion Bar

UNSCENTED ~ Handcrafted Cold Pressed Avacado Oil Soap

UNSCENTED ~ Squid Silk Solid Conditioner Bar

Squis Squeak Solid Shampoo Bar ~ PURE

Gentle Oil Cleanser ~ For Normal Skin

This is such a wonderful product! I must say that I sought them out for my daughter who is 2 and has severe Eczema on her little body. I am tired of using steroid creams and was searching for a natural alternative when I found Squid Balm. I opted for the phytoestrogen (plant estrogens) free option that Squid balm offers…so I must say I cannot comment on the scented line of this product. The phytoestrogen free products are also free of xenoestrogens (synthetic chemicals that can mimic estrogen in the body), fragrance free, phthalate free, nut free, gluten free, and paraben free. I opted for this option because of the Eczema and anything that a product can eliminate to suppress flare-ups is a plus in my book! However, with that said…this product is so wonderful that their scented line can only enhance the “awesomeness” of Squid Balm!

On to my review…

Theese were all AWESOME products for my daughter with sensitive skin. She did not have an Eczema flare up while using this product. It actually helped to clear up the Eczema. I was extremely surprised to see how well she took to the product. Often creams (even sensitive, fragrance free) creams irritate her skin…causing it to “burn” as she says when applied. Squid Balm DOES NOT burn or irritate the skin…in fact she liked the lotion bar so much she carries it around putting the cream on herself. This is such a relief to a mother who used to have to hold her daughter down to apply cream! All of the products were great for her little skin… I liked the shampoo bar because it too was easy to apply and since she was already used to Mr. Squiddy (as we affectionately call the solid lotion bar because of the cute logo) she was not apprehensive about letting me wash her hair as she usually is with the commercial shampoo I was using.

The only thing I did not try out on my daughter was the Gentle Facial cleanser (I saved that one for myself!) the cleanser is nice and smooth and does a great job! In fact I like it more than the cleanser I was using previously! The only thing I wish is that the bottle I was given included a pump…I received the 1 oz size which does not come with a pump. I would imagine that a pump dispenser would be much easier to use with the product and cause less waste! I must also admit that I swiped the conditioner bar for myself (my 2 year old does fine with just shampoo and no conditioner) I am currently using this in lieu of shave gel…let me tell you this is by far the BEST thing I have used for shaving! The conditioner bar has many used from traditional conditioner to styling crème…but I liked it best as a shave lotion.

All in all these products are truly AWESOME! I am so glad I have found Squid Balm for myself and my daughter…we will use this product for years to come!

To find out more about Squid Balm and to order please visit:

http://squidbalm.com/index.html or look them up on facebook or twitter!

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30 Meals in One Day Review, Promo Code & Giveaway!

Posted by Brande on July 8, 2011
in Books, Coupons, Deals, Downloads, DVDs & CDs, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Gift Ideas, Giveaways, Health, Health & Garden Tuesday, Health and Garden Tuesday, Health and Nutrition, Products for Mom, Recipes, Saving Money

So, you spent the day at work or running around with your kids. You get home and the question comes up, “What’s for dinner?”. Imagine telling them we’re having Slow Cooked Chili or Chicken Stuffed Manicotti within 45 minutes! With this book and CD, it’s possible!

Dinner is Ready (by Deanna Buxton) is the book & software I received. In this book, there are 15 chapters. Each explains in detail the steps you need to accomplish your ultimate goal of 30 Meals in One Day. Here are a few chapter titles. “What is Freezer-Worthy?”, “Things That Will Make Your Life Easier”, “The Day Before”, & “Thawing”.

I’m going to share 2 (two) paragraphs from the “Dinner is Ready” book.

From Chapter 2 – “What is Freezer-Worthy?”

“The test for “freezer-worthiness” is, “Do you like it after it has been frozen?” After it is frozen, thawed and heated, can you tell that it has been frozen? If you can tell it has been frozen, you don’t want it on your freezer-worthy list. You are not freezing leftovers! What makes leftovers taste like leftovers? Leftovers can taste dried out, thick and overcooked. Freezing is a marvelous method for food preservation. When frozen properly, the food you serve your family will taste as delicious as if made that day! The intention is to freeze food at or before its peak so you are always serving fresh tasting food. Fully cooked meals such as Slow Cooker, StoveTop and Oven recipes should be frozen as soon as cool enough to go into the freezer. Assemble recipes should be frozen as soon as preparation and packaging is complete.

From Chapter 4 – ” Choosing Recipes”

“Before choosing 15 recipes to prepare, you must first divide them according to cooking method and/or time required to prepare each. Slow Cooker recipes, Oven recipes, StoveTop recipes, and Assemble recipes.

Your recipe list should very nearly consist of:

2 Slow Cooker recipes, 2 Oven recipes, 2 StoveTop recipes and 9 Assemble recipes

This is a general rule. The number of each will probably vary at times. Just be sure to limit the total to 15. Don’t choose more Slow Cooker and Oven recipes than are physically possible in a day and avoid choosing too many labor intensive StoveTop recipes.”

My Review:

What your doing is making 15 double batch recipes, getting 30 meals. This book and software is fantastic! The software is very friendly, when you pick your recipes. It will develop a shopping list and labels! Also, from the software you can print a menu, recipes, and labels! The book is very step by step and it seems as though nothing has been left out! There are 158 pages of recipes! However, I must warn you. You’ll need 1 (one) full day just to cook. So, put your families on notice for that day. That and your shopping day, you’ll probably end up spending more than normal. But, you’ll have tons of meals! I know what some of you are thinking, where am I going to fit 30 meals in my freezer? (There’s a chapter on this too) I’m limited on space and moving in a few weeks. So, 30 meals didn’t make sense to me at this time. Or maybe you want to try it out first. You can do what I did, I made 10 meals (5 recipes). 1 Slow Cooker, 1 Oven, 1 StoveTop, and 2 Assemble. Worked for me!

In addition to Dinner is Ready, they offer Lunch is Ready & On the Side. Got a wedding or baby shower coming up?

Overall, I recommend this product!

Let’s talk promo codes! We’ve got one for you, for you! You can get $5.00 off any order over $12.oo if you use this promo code: UTFAIR Not too shabby!

Join their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Dinner-is-Ready#!/pages/Dinner-is-Ready/192962734062940

Or their blog at http://www.30mealsinoneday.blogspot.com/!

Oh, one more thing! We have a giveaway!!!!

One very lucky Faith and Family Reviews reader will win a Dinner is Ready book and software combo!

You can also purchase this combo on their website at http://www.30mealsinoneday.com/products.php and don’t forget your promo code UTFAIR. If you order the same combo set, then win the giveaway, they will refund your order OR send you another set! AND – it you order the full set (all 3 cookbooks and 3-in-1 software) before the winner is announced, the will refund $60.00 of the winner’s order!

Happy Cooking!

Giveaway-

Mandatory Entry: Tell me what your favorite dish is to cook or bake.
Extra Entries (Please be sure and leave a comment and link for extra entries):

1 Entry:Follow Faith and Family Reviews On Twitter

1 Entry:Like/Friend Faith and Family Reviews on Facebook.

1 Entry: Join their facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/Dinner-is-Ready#!/pages/Dinner-is-Ready/192962734062940

2 Entries: Follow Faith and Family Reviews on Google Friend Connect (on the our right side bar).

2 Entries: Tweet about this giveaway, but only one tweet per day please. Include your tweet url with your comment. You may write your own tweet or use this one:

Giveaway: Enter to win a 30 meals in one day combo pack! http://bit.ly/p4jNyA @faithfamilyrevw! Please share! Thx!

5 Entries: Blog about this giveaway and link back this post..

1 Entry: for every comment you leave anywhere else on this blog, but please leave a link with your comment!

Details:
This giveaway will run from July 8th, 2011 to July 22nd, 2011 at midnight CST. The winner will be chosen through Random.org. 30 Meals in One Day will send one winner their prize. Winner will be contacted via email on or before July 22nd and will be asked for their contact and other pertinent info. Winners will have 48 hours to send me their e-mail at [ffr] [giveaways] [at] [gmail] [dot] [com] (without spaces and parenthesis). Please note: This giveaway is offered to US and Canada only.

Thanks and have fun!

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