Faith and Family Reviews - Product reviews you can trust!

Hungry for Change Shares Top 10 Food Additives to Avoid

Posted by html404 on June 26, 2012
in Downloads, DVDs & CDs, Food and Treats, Health, Health & Garden Tuesday, Health and Garden Tuesday, Health and Nutrition

Do you know what’s in your food? I mean really know. Do you care what’s put in your food? If you don’t, you should because what’s in your food is or will eventually make you sick.

On Friday I received an email from Hungry for Change. By the way, I love the work they are doing! In the email they shared a link to top 10 food additives to avoid. I think you are going to be surprised! If you go to the link below you can read about the food additives to avoid, as well as download a 1 page shopping guide:

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/top-10-food-additives-to-avoid

You can also check out their documentaries, Food Matters (I am going to re-watch this and post about it next week) and Hungry for Change. They share a little bit about these food documentaries at their other site: http://www.foodmatters.tv/

What’s stopping you from changing your eating habits? Self-discipline and just saying no to the bad stuff is my problem. It helps if we don’t bring junk into the house.

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Kohl’s Cares Campaign – A Review

Posted by Professor on June 24, 2012
in Books, Education, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Giving Back/Charity, Kids Toys, Organization

Kohl’s is one of my favorite stores… not only because they offer a great variety of fashion but because of their low prices and great deals! But Kohl’s is awesome because they also give back though their Kohl’s Cares campaign.

Kohl’s Cares Campaign features merchandise for children and 100 percent of the net profit benefits children’s health and education initiatives nationwide.

Items available through the Kohl’s cares campaign for the Summer 2012 campaign feature Vibrant Guy Parker-Rees illustrated Books, Coordinating plush toys, and tote bag.

Kohl’s Cares Cause Merchandise for Kids Books include:

Down by the Cool of the Pool – Children will love to sing and dance along as the story comes alive with animal sounds and celebration!

Giraffes Can’t Dance – This adorable story will teach children about the importance of individuality in a tale of a giraffe with two left feet.

Dinosaurumpus! – Read this fun story aloud to children and watch their excitement as they get a glimpse into the life of a dinosaur. Who knew dinosaurs could dance? This book and coordinating plush are available exclusively at Kohls.com only.

NEW ITEM: Down by the Cool of the Pool tote bag – Resourceful and cute, this multi-purpose tote bag is great for the pool, a sleepover or even a trip to the grocery and features a vibrant illustration from Down by the Cool of the Pool – a must have for summer!

All items are ONLY $5.00 each

Kohl’s Cares Cause Merchandise for Grown-Ups

Kohl’s is treating adults to a tasty way to support children’s health and education with two cookbooks that are great for the entire family. Beat the summer heat and treat friends and family to a variety of homemade popsicles featured in POPS! Icy Treats for Everyone by Krystina Castella. Adults can also learn to master the art of outdoor grilling with Good Housekeeping: Grilling cookbook. Each cookbook is available for just $5 – a real value!

In addition to the merchandise program, Kohl’s Cares features the Kohl’s Cares Scholarship Program, which last year recognized more than 2,100 young volunteers with a total of $410,000 in scholarships and prizes; the Associates in Action program, which encourages associate volunteerism and provided more than $10 million in grants last year to youth-focused nonprofit organizations and fundraising gift cards for schools and youth-serving organizations. For more information, visit www.Kohls.com/Cares.

OUR REVIEW:

We were very excited to have the opportunity to review items from the Summer Kohl’s Cares Campaign. We received a plush monkey and two books (Giraffes Can’t Dance and Down by the Cool of the Pool). The monkey plush is so cute…my youngest (3 years old) totes it around everywhere and has deemed it her best friend. The books are also a favorite in our household. The stories are very cute and the illustrations are wonderful. The illustrations make the stories pop to life…my children absolutely love hearing the stories again and again.

I would not hesitate to purchase more from this series…not only because the kids love the books and plush but because all of the profit goes to charity. I actually went to Kohl’s today and stopped by the Kohl’s care campaign Kiosk to grab a tote bag…and to my disappointment the entire Kiosk was empty. So…this must be the hot campaign this summer. I hope my local Kohl’s restocks so that I can get some more goodies real soon! Stop by your local Kohl’s and check out what they have to offer!

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.

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Fridge Hunt #ChooseCartons

Posted by html404 on June 23, 2012
in Community Issues, Eco Friendly Products

How often to you really look in your refrigerator? Have you ever gone on a fridge hunt? A fridge hunt, you say? A fridge hunt is when you take really good stock of what is in your refrigerator, what food packaging is used and whether or not it is truly eco-friendly. I did this earlier in the week because I wanted to make note of all the packaging the different foods came in. I was astonished to discover that about 99% of all the packaging in my fridge was plastic – plastic bags, plastic cartons and plastic containers. All of which are pretty much recyclable, though we usually do not recycle our salad bags. There were very few glass jars or containers and there was only a couple egg cartons that were made out of paper, which of course are both recyclable and compostable. We do both with paper egg cartons. Since we are waiting for our hens to lay eggs we are saving our egg cartons, not only to recycle them but also to save money from buying new cartons.

I even took photos of my fridge for you – excuse the dirt it hasn’t been cleaned in a couple of weeks!

Even though we have been on a journey of living a greener lifestyle and eating healthier, I’ll admit that here are still many things I don’t know. Each time I learn something new, it blows me away. I don’t even know which packaging adds freshness to our food. That’s why when I read some facts recently I knew I had to share them because you are going to be taken aback as much as I was in regards to the importance of using paper packaging.

Some interesting facts about paper cartons:

– “Over 41 million households have access to carton recycling, and that number is on the rise. In addition, cartons are made from renewable materials – more than 70 percent of the carton is made from paper, all from trees from responsibly managed forests.
– Packaging plays a very important role in keeping food and beverages fresh. The environmental impact of a package is just as important as the contents inside.
– Cartons are recyclable where facilities exist. The paper fiber contained in cartons is valuable. Recycled cartons are used to make products such as tissue, office paper, wall boards and other building materials. To learn if your community accepts cartons for recycling, please visit www.recyclecartons.com or check with your local recycling program.
– Cartons are made with renewable energy. More than 50 percent of the energy used to make the paper in Evergreen Packaging’s cartons comes from biomass.
– Responsible forestry promotes new forest growth, and these forests help to diminish greenhouse gases. Forests remove carbon from the atmosphere and store it in trees. In the US, due to both increases in the total area of forest land and increases in the carbon stored per acre, an additional 192 million metric tons of carbon are sequestered each year through responsible forest management programs nationwide. This offsets roughly 11% of the country’s industrial greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of removing almost 135 million passenger vehicles from the nation’s highways.”

Don’t these facts just make you want to buy more food in paper packaging? I know it does I do! Do you know that if you share any of the above facts via twitter with the hashtag #choosecartons you will help raise money for Habitat for Humanity®? Tweet to your heart’s content!

For more information, please visit: www.choosecartons.com
Visit Evergreen Facebook page and like: http://www.facebook.com/ChooseCartons
Follow Evergreen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/ChooseCartons

“I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Evergreen and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

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Green Smoothies & Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead

Posted by html404 on June 22, 2012
in DVDs & CDs, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Movies, Recipes

A couple of weeks ago at the homeschool convention the documenatry Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead came up in a couple of conversations, including one with my friend Audrey, who I was working with. It is a documentary about an Australian man who is overweight, became sick enough to be put on medications due to the health issues he was experiencing. He decides to go on a 60-day juice fast of green smoothies in order to improve his health. Juicing enables nutrients to get into the blood stream, unlike food that needs to be chewed, swallowed and digested.

Audrey is very health conscious, more so than me and had watched this documentary. I don’t think it was the movie that made her start drinking green smoothies as I have seen her drink carrot juice type drinks before. Well, she ended up bringing her older daughter and I a green smoothie on Saturday of the conference. I liked it and thought I could/should start drinking them too, but didn’t until nearly a week later.

Last weekend we finally watched the documentary Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead. It was really interesting. Inspiring even and amazing how much weight this man dropped. He was eventually able to get off all medications and get rid of his illness. He completely changed his lifestyle.

I ended up deciding I wanted to start drinking green smoothies. I wanted to do it for 60 days too, until I remembered that I am still breastfeeding and couldn’t. In a fast, like a juice fast, your body goes through what is called a detox. This is when your body releases toxins that are stored in your body. I would hate for my son to be affected by any toxins released into my breast milk as my body detoxed. That’s why I decided to start with one green smoothie a day and hopefully increase that after a while. I actually persuaded my husband that he needed to start with me! Because it’s much more fun to do something like this with someone rather than by myself. Yes, he actually agreed to start drinking green smoothies! He who has an aversion to any green vegetable except broccoli and kale soup! 😉 We also decided the children should join us. On Sunday all of us started drinking green smoothies….until my Bosch blender stopped working on Tuesday morning, but the part arrived yesterday so we are good to go again.

You can watch Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead too for free at this link: http://www.jointhereboot.com/

Green Smoothies

All I do for our green smoothies is use what we have on hand as far as vegetable and fruits go. At the beginning of the week we had carrot juice, bananas, grapes, orange juice, spinach (store bought), romaine lettuce, broccoli slaw, our spinach and arugula from the garden. I decided for the children and husband’s sake we’d start with the smoothies being on the sweeter side first and slowly decrease the amount of fruit we add.

I simply put the carrot juice in the blender first then added enough fruit and veggies to fill the blender, depending upon the consistency of the smoothie I would add more carrot or orange juice and blended it until it was smooth, not chunky. Everyone mostly liked the smoothies, even my almost 2 year old had 4 helpings of it! Though it was a little glass. We really only had 1 or 2 say something negative and 1 of those two outright didn’t like it, but we motivated him to drink it. My husband really liked the one batch that had more grapes in it, as he couldn’t taste the greens at all, even though the smoothie was indeed the color green.

Now I’m off to make our smoothies….

What have you been doing for your health and wellness?

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Download the Colonel’s Autobiography and Recipes for FREE!

Posted by Brande on June 21, 2012
in Articles, Books, Downloads, Ebooks, Food and Treats, Free Stuff, Recipes, Thrifty Thursday

Head over to Facebook and “Like” KFC and download Colonel Sanders’ Autobiography FREE and a secret recipe book!

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Summer Tip: Check Your Deck for Safety

Posted by html404 on June 19, 2012
in Articles, Guest Post, Home

When warmer weather arrives it usually motivates homeowners to do projects around the house. Summer is often spent barbecuing and hosting family gatherings in the back yard on the patio or deck. It is important that guests and our families are safe. Below you will find a number of steps to check your deck for repairs:

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Retail Me Not! Free App!

Posted by Brande on June 19, 2012
in Coupons, Deals, Free Stuff, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, SALES, Saving Money, Shopping

“Save when you want, where you want.” Great new motto from a great new app!

Save Money! Don’t pay full price! Download Retail Me Not for your apple product. It’s Free! Don’t have an apple product? Head to their website Retail Me Not.

I use Retail Me Not’s website all the time. So, I was super excited when the new App came out! Retail Me Not has over 1,600 redeemable coupons with thousands of merchants. With the Retail Me Not app you can save online or in the store! “Hot Deals” from popular stores are updated daily.

Explore the online and in-store coupons from thousands of merchants or the drag and drop functions for easy online shopping. Don’t need your coupon now? Save it for later. Or check out coupons from popular stores and categories.

Here’s some important links!

Link to the App on iTunes: goo.gl/AVcg6

Link (more info & video): http://bit.ly/RetailMeNotApp

Twitter: @RetailMeNot

Facebook: http://facebook.com/retailmenot

Go and download this useful and money saving app! IT’S FREE!

Let me know if you have this free app and what you think of it!

Disclosure – Posting this makes me eligible for a drawing all my opinions are my own. Faith and Family Reviews is a member of One2One Network.

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Melissa & Doug Giveaway on Facebook!

Posted by Brande on June 19, 2012
in Contests, Education, Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Gift Ideas, Giveaways, Kids Toys, Parenting, Seasonal Stuff, Shopping

I’m a HUGE Melissa & Doug fan and wanted to share about this great giveaway! Every week they pick a new winner for a great Melissa & Doug Camp Sunny Patch Product – virtual camp for you and your kids! I missed the first 2 weeks, eek! Forgive me! The sprinkler above was for the week ending the 19th. According to their terms page here’s the weekly line up:

6/21 to 6/26 – Spark Shark Floating Target Game

6/17 to 7/3 – Happy Giddy Bug Net

7/5 to 7/10 – Speck Seahorse Sand Ice Cream Set

7/12 to 7/17 – Winner’s Choice Role Play Costume

7/19 to 7/24 – The Box Girls Camp Bunk Box of Questions

7/26 to 7/31 – Backyard Explorer Role Play Costume

8/2 to 8/7 – Spark Shark Fish Hunt Pool Toy

8/9 to 8/14 – Activity Cones – Set of 8

8/16 to 8/21 – Trunki Prize Pack (includes 1 Trunki Suitcase, 1 Trunki Saddlebag, 1 Trunki Tote Bag, 3 packs of Trunki Stickers)

8/23 to 8/28 – USA Map Floor Puzzle

Let me know which Melissa & Doug Giveaway your kids would love!

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BRAVE in Theatres June 22!

Posted by html404 on June 18, 2012
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Movie Monday, Movies

This is a rare Movie Monday about Brave…

Have you heard of Disney/Pixar’s new movie coming out next week? Have you watched any of the clips? I’ve received several to share but they usually get cast off for something else I have to work on. But today I am sharing one! Do the happy movie dance for me, ok? Ha-ha!

It is about a new princess, Merida, who seems to have a mind of her own. Very strong willed, passionate and courageous.

This looks like it will be quite the movie! What do you think of this hilarious new “Summer Games” clip?

It’s also a bit gross in parts with some little boy humor, eh?

Brave will be in Theaters near you on June 22. Check your local listings. In the mean time be sure to check out the movie’s Facebook page.

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Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Moms

Posted by html404 on June 15, 2012
in Books, Encouragement for Moms, Parenting, Products for Mom

The first several years of being a mom I was pretty uptight and stressed – a lot more than I am now. There were (and still are) so many things I didn’t know (still don’t know). However, time, experience and maturity has taught me what is important:

1. Prayer. I pray all the time for my children. After all, God is the one who made them and ultimately knows them.
2. Love. Kids need lots of love and it is a constant work in progress to show them I love them on a daily basis amidst the good, bad and ugly. Each of them enjoy what is often referred as “love languages”. When they know they are loved they thrive.
3. Doing My Best. If I am truly doing my best, then the rest is up to God. As finite humans there is always room for improvement but if my husband and I are jointly seeking what is best for our family and individual children, then things should be ok. Our children will make choices, but any bad or wrong choices won’t be our fault if we have taught them right from wrong – after all our children are human too with minds of their own. Some just have to learn the hard way, unfortunately, and I cannot beat myself up about it.

I still tend to worry about certain things, think that’s part of being a parent, but overall I have loosened up quite a bit. As a mom of eight, I do not have time to let my Type A personality rule me like it use to!

I know all of you moms with 2-3 children all think I am nuts for having as many children as I do, but in many ways having 2-3 is as much work as having my 8 now. I know you don’t believe me but it’s true. When I had three children 3 and under or even five 6 and under, I was doing everything. Everything. My oldest was just starting to be a helper girl. Now I don’t do everything because I have built in helpers, however, I do work for income within our home and without the children’s help we would probably never eat or have clean clothes! Not that they do it perfectly by any means because often I find myself finishing up what they didn’t.

When I was a young mom (making myself sound old now! ;)) I also remember reading a lot of books. Books for encouragement, books about parenting, books about children. I still have many of my favorites and yes, they are still an encouragement to me. I hope one day my daughters will benefit from them.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Moms

Kristine Carlson has written a book titled, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Moms, that has short chapters for busy moms. In it she shares “simple ways to stress less and enjoy your family more.” I think new and young moms alike would benefit from this book. She includes many reminders like:

– There’s no such thing as a “perfect” mom
– Practice breathing before you speak
– Gratitude is a family practice, and begins with you
– When all else fails, laugh
– Celebrate other mothers
– Guilt-free working mom

Plus many more in her little 100 chapter book.

You, too, can connect with Kristine and other Don’t Sweat Moms via:

Facebook ~ Facebook.com/DontSweatMoms
Twitter ~ Twitter.com/DontSweatMoms
YouTube ~ YouTube.com/user/dontsweatmoms
Pinterest ~ Pinterest.com/dontsweatmoms
Join the Twitter conversation using the hashtag #DontSweatMoms.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff for Moms may be purchased at any Amazon.com or Barnes and Nobles