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Tag Archive for Family Stuff

Home Depot – Free Kids Workshops

Posted by Brande on May 2, 2013
in Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, Uncategorized

Looking for a fun and free activity for your kids!? Check out Home Depot’s FREE kids Workshops! The next workshop is focused on the upcoming movie “EPIC” and your child will be building an herb planter! It’s on May 4th! Home Depot also has 2 more upcoming workshop’s in June & July!

So far, my daughter built a bird feeder, here she is painting it.

She received her very own Home Depot apron, pin for her build, and a certificate! She is very proud of her accomplishments!

Head here or go to Home Depot’s site for more information!

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Greenhouse Disaster – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on May 1, 2013
in Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Gardening, Seasonal Stuff, Wordless Wednesday

This is what I call our greenhouse disaster. We had storms go through a couple of weeks ago and destroy our cheap greenhouse. I know even the large, well-made greenhouses on larger farms often get completely blown over in bad storms, but still it’s very disappointing to say the least because we also lost many of our transplants. 🙁

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Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

Posted by html404 on April 26, 2013
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, Health, Health and Nutrition, Recipes

“This sponsored post was made possible by The Motherhood and Avocados from Mexico. I have been compensated for my time and work on this campaign, however all opinions are 100% my own.”

Last Friday night four Chicago area bloggers gathered together to experience Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico. We each made an avocado dish (or two) to pass and share. There was one blogger who had never tried avocados before. The majority of us were trying new recipes from avocado macaroni and cheese, avocado ice cream, guacamole and avocado fries. For some fabulous photos of the dishes served visit Frosted Fingers!

Did you know that avocados from Mexico are available all year round? I didn’t know this. I also didn’t know this when I chose a recipe for BLT sandwiches:

Fresh avocado in sandwiches, on toast or substituted as a spread in place of many other popular foods may help reduce your intake of calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol.

I also did not know that one ounce (3 slices) of an avocado has 50 calories and contributes nearly 20 vitamins and minerals, making it a good choice to help meet nutrient needs! I find that amazing.

However, I did know that avocados are full of good fats our bodies need. One of the reasons I would feed it to my little ones as babies – my older girls to this day love avocados. It makes for a very easy to prepare meal. Just wash it, cut it open, de-pit it and start spooning baby bites into baby’s (or your) mouth! Easy peasy! Our younger crew didn’t even notice the avocados on the avocado BLT turkey sandwiches.

Not very many in my family liked the avocado fries. I thought they tasted good, but liked Michelle’s (of Honestly and Truly) idea of serving them with a yummy dip.

Avocado Recipes

Here’s the link to the recipe that inspired our Avocado Fries. However, we did not fry them, we baked them and we used olive oil instead of canola oil. We also used regular bread crumbs seasoned with our own spices.

Our Avocado BLT Turkey Sandwich was inspired by this Turkey Avocado Bacon Sandwich recipe.

You can visit www.theamazingavocado.com for more recipes and nutritional
information.

Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

You all have a chance to win a $100 gift card! Just enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Lowe’s Build & Grow – Free Activity for Kids!

Posted by Brande on April 25, 2013
in Education, Family Stuff, Free Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gardening, Handmade Items, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, Uncategorized

I’m always on the hunt for free and fun activities for my family. Lowe’s has a fantastic program called Build and Grow. On my daughter’s first visit she received a Lowe’s apron, a hammer & protective goggles to borrow and her project. When she/we finished the project we returned the hammer and protective goggle and she was given a certificate and a patch for her apron! She loves the iron on patches that she earned and loves to show them off on her apron.

So, far we’ve built 2 monster trucks and a “Croods” the movie planter. Our next build is a sweetheart frame on May 11th.

Click here or head over to Lowes.com and search for Build & Grow to sign up at your nearest Lowe’s for the next free activity for kids!

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Milking and Making Butter- Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on April 24, 2013
in All Natural Products, Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Wordless Wednesday

This is our second oldest daughter milking. She’s our chief milker at the moment until we train the next one in line to milk. I have helped with milking but I think my nervousness unsettled Eclipse because she seemed jittery and moved a lot. Then again maybe I’m being paranoid and she was just antsy in her new home since I haven’t milked since the first week. Eclipse does seem to do better for our daughter, whom the cow loves I might add! Over the weekend, Eclipse watched the children go from one end of the property, down the tree line to the other end and mooed in their direction after our daughter went over with her younger siblings. Then when our daughter came back across the field, Eclipse followed her again by walking the fence line to greet her – if that isn’t affection, I don’t know what is!

Since Eclipse has been on pasture her cream (and milk) has been slowly increasing. Today the girls got 6 cups of cream from two gallons of milk and made two pounds of butter! The photos below are not all of the same day. The milk bottles are actually some of our very first. The butter photos are from today. All they do is put the cream in a pint or quart sized jar and shake it until it forms butter. The girls like to shake it until it forms a ball, which eliminates the need to shape the butter by hand! Pretty smart, eh?

Click on the image to make it larger and brighter.

It’s a fun milking and making butter! My husband is very happy not to have to stop for milk after work!

Happy not-so-Wordless Wednesday!

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PINXAV – Pink-Salve

Posted by 278Wife on April 19, 2013
in Baby Products, Diapers and Accessories, Family Stuff, Health, Parenting, Personal Care Products, Reviews

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.

Would you ever think to use diaper rash ointment to treat acne, bug bites, excema, rashes, or poison ivy? You would if you have ever tried PINXAV diaper rash ointment. PINXAV, pronounced “pink salve,” contains Zinc Oxide, just like other diaper rash ointments, except it contains more of it. PINXAV also includes aloe, lanolin, vitamin E, menthol, and other natural products. PINXAV is primarily used as a diaper rash ointment. It protects the skin, aids in preventing diaper rash, relieves chafed skin, and helps seal out wetness. It should be applied with each diaper change, especially at bedtime and naptime.

I personally tried PINXAV on a rash on my inner arm. It’s a seasonal rash I get that I have never found a cream that provided complete relief. I put a dab of the ointment on the rash and was pleasantly surprised that it is a pink ointment. I love pink! The ointment is quite thick, but it rubs in very easily. Let me tell you, a little bit, and I mean a little bit, goes a very long way. I put maybe a dime size amount and it covered almost my entire lower arm. I used PINXAV on my rash morning and night for 5 days, and was blown away with the results. After the first day, my inner arm no longer itched. After 3 days the rash began to fade, and after 5 days the rash was almost nonexistent. I still cannot believe it! I started using PINXAV on my son’s cheeks. He has sensitive skin and his cheeks get red blotches on them in the evening. I put just a dab on his cheeks at night and it is starting to clear up. I like how gentle the ointment is. It also smells very nice. I can defintely smell the menthol in it, but it is not too overpowering. The ointment makes your skin feel extremely soft, even hours later. It was definitely unexpected coming from a diaper rash ointment!

PINXAV is an all around great product to always have on hand. I cannot wait to try it on my new baby’s bottom; I am confident it will work miracles. Not only can it be used for diaper rashes, but also for heat rashes, chafing, poison ivy, psoriasis, acne, jock itch, minor burns, and many other ailments. PINXAV is for the entire family, which is why I would highly recommend it. They are so confident in their product that they offer a money back guarantee. Trust me, you won’t be dissatisfied. This would make an excellent gift to a new mom or even a veteran mom who has never tried it. PINXAV is available in either a 4oz tube or a 16oz jar and can be purchased at many Target and Wal-Mart stores, but it can also be ordered on their webiste:

www.pinxav.com

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A Smoker and a Non-Smoker’s Ecigarettes Review

Posted by html404 on April 14, 2013
in Family Stuff, Health, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, Reviews, Uncategorized

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

As you know, my mom was here for three weeks in March and she’s a smoker. Her first week here right on her birthday she received ecigarettes in the mail. She was anxious to try them. Not because she’s interested in quitting, but because she could smoke inside at the airport or wherever smoking is prohibitive instead of standing out in the cold. It’s my desire she’ll want to quit and slowly reduce the amount of nicotine she inhales, since the ecigarettes do have strong, full, medium, light and no nicotine.

In the ecigarettes kit she received 10 samples of two different flavors of refills, the ecigarette and the adapter. Her samples were the full and medium strengths. The first time, she only took a few drags with the full strength and she said she could have gone out and had a cigarette after using the ecigarettes. We initially thought she could have benefited from having the strong to start out with. Then she tried smoking an ecigarette and took ten drags and said she felt satisfied.

She said it was different smoking with the ecigarette. To be honest, she coughed on her first drag! Mom said that they left an after taste like cigarettes, but old cigarettes. I forgot to ask her if that gradually went away. It’s hard writing a review from another person’s perspective.

For me, it was weird to be near mom while she smoked with the ecigarette because I still had the same reaction as if she was smoking. The vapor I saw reminded me of smoke and my gut reaction was to not want to breath it in or want my children near it. The rare skeptic in me reared it’s head. I was skeptical because when mom smoked she still had to blow out the vapor. I wondered what was in it, was it harmful? Yeah I needed to do more research because I didn’t want to have a false sense of protection from harmful odors and what I was breathing in. Nevertheless, when I did get a whiff of the vapor it smelled like vanilla, the flavor she tried while she was here. It also did not make us cough as cigarette smoke would.

The FDA has not approved ecigarettes nor have there been any clinical studies done. So there is no evidence to prove or disprove any claims about the ecigarettes being better or “healthier”. However, smokers seem to really benefit from them. Even my little sister wanted to try them because she wants to quit smoking. Forgot to ask mom today if she shared any with little sis. Overall, my mom had a fairly positive experience and enjoyed trying something new. She ended up using the ecigarettes when she woke up in the middle of the night so she wouldn’t have to get up and go outside to have a smoke.

I’d recommend you to encourage your smoking relatives to give them a try, especially if they are looking quit smoking.

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Herdshare Cow – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on April 10, 2013
in Animals, Community Issues, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats

Not so Wordless this week…ha!

Our family drinks and goes through a lot of milk in a week so we’ve been looking at the possibility of getting a herdshare cow (the kids will own a portion of her milk “shares” and we’ll sell “cow or milk shares”, which is where other people desiring raw milk will buy shares of her, that is if IL doesn’t change their raw milk laws). We have been researching dairy cows or rather our daughter has been, and even went to visit a Guernsey dairy farm in Wisconsin, nearly two hours away, in November. The economical benefits to owning our own cow would allow us to supply our family with milk for 8-10 months out of the year, plus all the other dairy products we enjoy – butter, yogurt, ice cream and cheese, as well as providing others with fresh milk too.

Then a couple of weeks ago while my mom was here we came across a Craigslist ad for a Guernsey for sale locally. It was a person we bought some of our bookcases from just after we moved into this house. The reasons we like this cow is she’s local so less travel time, less stress on the cow. The owner is raising the cow the way we want to, which is a huge factor to us wanting her. The cow was also affectionate to our daughter the first time she went in her pen, which resonated with us…so….we bought her!

Pictured at her old home.

Eclipse is a 5.5 year old Guernsey. She has given birth to three calves, the third one was born last year. Even though it’s been a year since her last birth she is still giving a couple of gallons of milk per day. We are really impressed, but we are newbies so it doesn’t take much to impress us 😉 She is being fed pasture, hay and fodder (sprouted grain). We *think* the fodder is what is helping her give milk for so long between calves. Either that or she’s just a faithful milker! Here’s to hoping she likes us as well as she did her former owner.

The children are hoping her first calf with us is a heifer (female) so they can buy back the herdshares and make Eclipse our family cow. If she has a bull calf, then he’ll be processed for beef and shared among all the shareholders. We hope to get Eclipse bred this spring or summer, Lord willing. First we have to figure out when she cycles, which can be hard to determine when there’s only one cow. Or so we’ve been told.

While I grew up surrounded by cows, I have very little experience taking care of them, especially a dairy cow. Growing up I watched them being milked and took their yummy milk from the cooler of our neighbors milk parlor, but not once did I take care of one or milk one. I took care of my pastor’s beef cow when he and his family went away a couple of times, that’s my extent of caring for a cow. Other than that my experience is limited to visits to neighbors farms in my hometown in Nova Scotia, having the cows lick my rubber boots and runny a muck through their pastures as a child.

We are excited but a little apprehensive, as cows require a set routine and it’s a whole new animal to acclimate to our farm. So do you have any experience with cows?

Stay tuned to more adventures of milking a cow, making butter and even fencing….from our fledgling little farm….

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The Christmas Web – A Christmas Tradition

Posted by html404 on April 9, 2013
in Books, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Holidays, Home, Kids Stuff, Kids Toys, SALES

This is a compensated post.

We’ve all probably participated in “Christmas in July” events or sales, I know I have multiple times over. It’s fun! Christmas is one of our family’s favorite holidays. Each of us has our own Christmas family tradition passed down from one generation to the next, but have you ever started a new holiday tradition? We have started a couple and our children have really enjoyed them.

If you are looking to start a new family tradition, consider www.ChristmasWeb.com The Chirstmas Web comes in a gift set – a hard covered, unique story book titled, “The Christmas Web” and three magic wands in nice packaging that can be used as a display as well. It’s a very cute idea to have children (or adults too!) find their special Christmas gift by following a literal web.

The Christmas Web retails for $39.99, however, right now there’s a “Spring Sale” going on and they are just $29.99. A 25% discount with the code SALE. Just enter the word SALE in the promotional code box to get the 25% discount at www.ChristmasWeb.com. One these are gone the price will go back to $39.99

Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjAXh74jYZA

We received The Christmas Web and our younger children liked it and said it was a nice idea and a sweet story. A couple of them even asked when we could use the wands and I told them at Christmas. The next question was, “When is Christmas?” Then the children were trying to figure out how long they had to wait! We look forward to creating a new tradition this Christmas. Then again maybe we could try it for one of our children’s upcoming birthdays. Whether it’s Christmas or in celebration of some other event, I know our children will enjoy having fun following the Christmas web to discover a special treat or gift at the end of the line.

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Sleepy Boy – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on April 3, 2013
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Kids Stuff, Wordless Wednesday

This week’s Wordless Wednesday photo is of Jr. when fell asleep on his brother’s shoulder as they were watching Pink Panther on my iPhone. The children set him down or he laid down naturally on my big purse on the floor. Too precious! It’s a lot calmer around the house when this little guy is asleep. When he’s awake he’s into everything and anything!

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