rockSTAR review : Mommy’s Sippy Cup

 

 

I love wine, I think most of us Mommy's do, okay at least I hope you do…otherwise I may have a problem! I was approached by the inventor of Mommy's Sippy Cup and asked to review it…sadly, I can't drink wine right now :( so I tried it with water! I personally love it. I have had to go to the park with a big plastic cup of wine (how trashy) hehe, but I love the idea of going to the park with a plastic wine glass!

The creator Sharon, decorated this cup with grapes made out of pacifiers. Which I think is so cute…and may even make you look like you aren't a complete alchy ;) So get classy and a little sassy and rock out with your wine glass.

If are a wine-o, a stressed out mama, or just in it for the giggles, this is the perfect gift for any mom!

Get In Touch With Mommy's Sippy Cup

Website

Facebook

Please don't drink and drive!

 

Mommy Mayhem Monday : Love and Marriage

First : yay! I am back on blogging schedule!!

 

Second : Let's talk about love and marriage… why? Because we are celebrating 7 years of marriage this weekend and next weeks post is going to be on Tough Mudder!

Marriage is hard, it's an on going struggle, sometimes we feel alone, sometimes we feel smothered, and sometimes it's just right. I love my husband a lot, I have been married to him since I was 19, just a baby. I have grown up with my husband, become a parent, learned to be a friend, cried, dealt with loss, and over all just learned to be a better person with Corey. While our marriage is awesome (most of the time) it hasn't always been. When we were first wed, my first thought was 'Shit, what did I do, can I get a divorce', no lie, I even asked CJ if he wanted to get a divorce! I didn't know what I was doing, and quite frankly I was pretty sure I hated my husband, I mean, I didn't exactly love myself how could I love him?

Through the years I have met some amazing couples, couples who have inspired me to be like them. (Hi, Becky & Tim, Deborah & Thomas, Suzanne & Joe). I have seen attributes, pieces and Godliness in each relationship that has inspired me to be a better wife. I think it's Important to have a mentor, in careers, sports, and in marriage. I hope one day I can inspire someone's marriage.

 

Are you inspired by someones marriage?

 

Asparagus and Rarebit Sauce

Ingredients

12 plum tomatoes

1 pound fresh, trimmed asparagus

2 tbsp olive oil

3/4 cup milk

1 tbsp margarine or butter

2 beaten egg yolks

2 tsp Dijon-style mustard

10 ounces cheese

6 slices bread

2 cloves garlic

 

To Do

Preheat oven to 450

Cut up veggies and toss in olive oil

Bake for 8-15 minutes

In a medium saucepan heat milk and margarine

Slowly add hot ingredients to egg yolks

Stir Constantly

Add mustard and cheese slowly

Continue to heat and stir for 2 minutes

Toast bread

Put Veggies on top of bread

Add sauce

 

*Recipe Courtesy of Easy Dinners Vegetarian*

Mommy Mayhem : Hard Choices

Thank you all for bearing with me as we adjust to summer vacation and transition into my second trimester :come on energy:! Today I want to address something close to home…maybe a little too close for some of us.

 

This past week a mom from Bretts class (her 5 year old was in his Kinder class and they were friends) died of Breast Cancer. I knew she had breast cancer, I didn't know she was dying. She didn't seem interested in making friends this past year, although I understand why now, but I saw her bike with her kids to school, volunteer in their classrooms and saw her out running a few times. Her hair began to grow back, and now it is very apparent to me that she chose to stop chemo and start living. I read about her death on Facebook and in the local paper and it made me really question – What Would I Do?

Would I buy an extra year and spend it dying or would I spend the short time I had left living? She obviously chose to live and I think that is really brave and amazing and very possibly something I may not be strong enough to do. What is the choice you would make, if you knew you would leave behind three elementary aged children? Would you beg for more time, or make it quality time? I ask it as such because I feel at this point you can't really have both. I am deeply saddened for this family, for this little girl, for her brother and sister. At 5 no matter how much time you have you can't 'get it', you can't grasp death, especially not the death of your mama

 

 

Fried Egg Sandwich
*Ingredients*
2 Pieces of Bread
2 eggs
Milk
Spinach
Muenster Cheese
Dijon Mustard
*Instructions*
Fry 1 Egg
In a Bowl Stir 1 egg and a bit of milk
Spread Mustard on Bread and add Cheese
Add Egg and top with Spinach and second slice of bread
Dip Sandwich in egg batter (fully immerse each side)
Add to pan and fry up
Serve with Fruit Salad

 

rockSTAR review : Palmolive

 

I am super excited…because I was selected by Palmolive to try out and write about their Soft Touch Hand Washing Dish Soap…and it just so happens that it is one of my favorites ever, and has been for a long time.

Lets talk about how I got turned on to Palmolive Soft Touch… This past winter I went to the doctor because my finger and nail had started to do this weird defunct crack/bleed/peel/striaght the nail shiz and I was freakin out! It hurt and it looked horrid. My doc suggested a gentler dish washing detergent, positive thoughts and steroids. I am dead friggin' serious on the positive thoughts too, cus you know that shit helps.

Palmolive was the first detergent I saw at Safeway that was branded as 'soft' so I tried it and lo and behold it worked. I was astonished at the way that it worked. By no means was is a miracle and my finger was cured that day, because that is ridiculous and would be a lie. It took about 2 weeks but my finger hasn't been jacked up since then. So, when Palmolive was like Hey- Sam wunna try this, I was on that like Sprinkles on a Sundae. Partially because I want y'all to know how much I love it and partially because I am about out.

 

 

 

 

I received these items complimentary of Influenster :)

 

Frugal Friday…erm…Sunday : DIY Garden

Tis the season to start pulling your food from the ground…at least here in Colorado. There are very few reasons I actually enjoy Colorado and the fact that I have learned to grow my own food here certainly is one of them. This year we made our very own raised bed gardens, one for cool weather crops (which we are harvesting now), and one for warm weather crops (which are growing now).

 

Up until last year I really had no interest in gardening and growing my own food, but with the rising cost of vegetation and the increasing health risk of Monsanto we decided to allocate some of our $1500 DIY budget to a garden! We ended up spending $275 total on Cinder Blocks, Dirt/Compost, and Seeds. Here is a step by step DIY for compact area, raised bed, organic garden

 

First we picked our spot. We needed 'direct' sunlight, but here in Colorado is goes from snowing (literally in the beginning of May) to 95 (end of May) in less than a Month! So, we picked a medium sized plot with lots of sun and shade :)

 

 
Next, we grabbed up our cinder blocks and staggered them…we did this mainly so that we wouldn't have to use cement them together
 

Our cool weather crops are three high, while our warm weathers are two blocks high

 

Once Corey was done with all the hard work we went and bought seeds. We chose a nursery that is local and has tested all their seeds in Colorado

 
Right now this is what our garden looks like right now!
 
 
We just pulled our first crop of spinach, which suppsequently, we can sow a lot more seeds when its cool again!

 

Even if we hadn't yeilded any crop this year I would still say the $275 learning process was worth it. Plus, the look on the kids face when our 'babies' popped up was worth it. They each have a flower and spice garden of their own, as well

 

Cinco de Mayo Giveaway

The winner of the Cinco de Mayo Giveaway is latanya! Please email me at coreysamjackson@gmail.com and I'll get you hooked up with Goya! Thank You Everyone who Entered

rockSTAR reviews : Natural Vitality

 

Recently I posted about our trip to the dentist, well I am not sure if I mentioned it but the dentist informed me of the decay dangers of gummy vitamins… Now, I find this slightly…devastating, I mean what is a girl to do with an entire Costco sized jar of Gummy Bear Vitamins? Oh, yeah, eat them…all.

Okay, well now that we all know I am an absolute fat kid, lets talk about Vitamins! I think with Monsanto, the processing and the overall down grading in American food products, I believe that we NEED vitamins (and our own gardens) but if you can't give your kids Gummies, they can't swallow pills and Flintstones are hard to come by, what can we give our kidlets? I found a company called 'Natural Vitality'.

Natural Vitality has a line called Kids Natural Calm Vitamins. These liquid vitamins (yay, no cavities) apparently taste not so fab…but I figure they shouldn't taste like juice because well, they aren't juice. My kids enjoy taking them, why I am not sure, maybe because they are a 'treat', or because they want to prove how awesome they are, either way they enjoy taking them.

At the end of the day I will take vitamins that don't taste fab, my kids will take, and won't help wrack up our dental bill. After reading through the ingredients of the vitamins, and really looking into what they all mean I am fully satisfied and would whole heartedly recommend them to my readers and my friends.

 

 

*Please note that Natural Vitality sent us one free Kids Natural Calm Vitamins to try out, so that our review would be accurate*

Frugal Friday : Making an Effort

I want to start with Sorry! I know that I have missed a couple of Frugal Fridays lately, and for that I do apologize…but what a perfect way to bust into an easy to envision, yet hard to grasp concept.

 

MAKE AN EFFORT

Everything about Frugality is making an effort. Will it always be the right choice? No, will your effort always be seen and rewarded, bwahaha, no. I know this doesn't sound like a fun idea, and it may not be, but it is so important. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I have almost bailed on being frugal, and this blog. Because, sometimes, I don't make a great effort, shiz, sometimes I don't even make an effort at all. I am a sell out, screw up, bailer…but aren't we all?

Corey and I have been is the midst of slow season over the last six week :gulp: and I wished so hard I had savings, because we should. We just can't, thanks to the bankruptcy, and that sucks. We have been living on a tight budget, which in turn forced us to really examine our money and where it has been going. Hmm, how do I say this. It has been going to eating out…a lot. Ya, not so great. So we made an effort to eat at home, have we made a ridiculous number of trips to the market, why, yes we have. Am I making another today, that should be for all of our groceries, but is really just going to be for dinner food, because I forgot to buy any meat this week?? Yup. That is okay because we have spent $25 on extra food we should have bought (because, I should have a meal plan, but the sight of food makes me queasy), how much does that really save on take out? Well, lets say we had to grab ingredients for 3 meals x 5 people @ 8/per person…40 per meal x 3 = 120…a little effort saved a lot of money. I consider that worth it.

 

Where in your life do you have to make an extra effort? I would love to hear I am not the only one ;)

rockSTAR review : MomAgenda

As a busy mom of almost 4, my life is always up in the air…jumbled and on the go. I depend all to much on my dayplanner. I have to, I mean I am balancing my schedule- doctors, midwives, races; my husbands schedule (how else would he know when his meetings are?); Jay has art shows, soccer practices and games; Brett has football, play dates and a weird school schedule; Emmy has play dates, preschool (next year). I have tried about every planner on the market, I have never found anything that was awesome and had enough space for everyone until I stumbled…okay, searched frantically for the momAgenda day planner! I love my planner and haven't strayed in years ;)

 

Here is the planner I have

I have the red version, but I can say hands down that even though it is huge (and it is huge), I have enough space for my everything. I love that I can keep my blogging schedule, life schedule, kids schedule all in one place, with out having to color coordinate it! It also has all the room I could every need for all my extra shit, like IDs, money, business cards…blah, blah, blah.

 

When is the last time you forgot an important event because your 3 year old deleted your phone calendar? I mean, I can't be the only one who has had that happen, right? Or had your computer crash? I realize that a dayplanner that is made of paper is mad old school, but there is something to be said for writing stuff down, and no one being able to delete it :)

 

What is your favorite dayplanner?

 

Mommy Mayhem Money : Forgive Me : Yogurt Covered Blueberries

Today, I want to talk about forgiveness…about that thing that all of us suck at. I have yet to meet any one, single, person that is really good at forgiving. Are you? I mean, really good at forgiving, not the kid that pushed you down in 2nd grade, I mean the parent that abused you, the man who raped you, the neighbor who molested you, the bottle that drowned your daddy, and the pills that stole your mama. That forgiveness.

 

I am really bad at forgiveness, I wish I weren't, but I have gotten better…slowly. I have realized the more I am trapped in my past, the less I can move forward. I have had to forgive my mama, because I was becoming her, I forgave her abuse, the pain, and all the wrongs…I didn't forget them, just forgave her. I forgave my cousin who sexually abused my family, I won't be invitin' him to dinner any time soon, but when he dies in jail, he will die with my forgiveness. My most recent struggle has been forgiving my daddy, he put a bottle to his head and pulled the trigger, and I will never understand that. I will eventually work through it all and be able to forgive him. I have forgiven a lot in my past, it doesn't make me more trusting, lie to me once and watch me walk away…it is really hard for me forgive. Do any of you feel that way? I may forgive my past, I won't can't forget it. It just no longer haunts me.

 

What do you need to forgive?

 

Since that was heavy lets try something light to munch on

Yogurt Covered Blueberries

What You Need

Cookie Sheet

Parchment Paper

Blueberries

Vanilla Greek Yogurt

Tooth Picks

 

Line the cookie sheet with parchment paper

Poke your blueberry with a toothpick dip in greek yogurt

Place on parchment paper

Repeat

Freeze

Enjoy while frozen (they mellt quickly)

 

 

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