Stuff Parents Need

Easing the chaos in the nest, one find at a time.

Making a Difference in My Community: #SpinbrushCFK

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Did you know that children living in poverty are twice as likely as their more affluent peers to suffer from tooth decay? I’m not very surprised to hear this, as MANY people in this nation, even those who have basic medical insurance, lack dental insurance, and a trip to the dentist can be a real budget-buster.

But these kids who have untreated oral disease suffer daily from pain and from the embarrassment of having discolored or damaged teeth. While I don’t have the funds to help cover dental bills for another family, I CAN help on the prevention side, and so can you!

I’m part of the Champions for Kids program, which seeks to gather folks together to donate oral care supplies to local nonprofits who work with children. I’m participating in the Spin into Action SIMPLE Service Project, and through this, I’m going to be donating some oral care items to Room in the Inn, a Chattanooga residential program for women and children experiencing homelessness.

Room in the Inn is an impressive program, because it works with the women in the program for anywhere from 3 to 9 months to help them find stability and reduce the likelihood that they will find themselves homeless again in the future. Health care, life skills training, parenting classes, mentoring and assistance with finding affordable housing are all offered. I really respect what the program does!

Two days ago I went shopping  at Walmart for some oral care supplies to donate, and you can check out my shopping experience here, if you like! Here are a few highlights:

Cute Arm & Hammer spinbrushes! You can customize your look with stickers!

It’s important to look for flouride-free toothpastes for little ones who might not remember to spit it out after brushing!

Anti-cavity rinses are a great way to help prevent tooth decay in children. 

I hope you are inspired by this post and might be able to make a donation of oral care products to an organization in need in your community. If you decide to be one of the Champions for Kids, please go to www.championforkids.com/simple and let us know that you are one of millions who has made a positive difference! You can also keep up with what’s happening with this program by following Champions for Kids and Spinbrush/Arm&Hammer on Twitter!

Stay tuned for an update next week where I tell you more about my donation experience!

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Champions For Kids #CBias #SocialFabric. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.  

Keep Little Snackers Out of Your Pantry: FishClip Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

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Lately I have been noticing some unusual things happening in our pantry.

It seems that we have little elves who are going into our pantry during the night and opening up our food.

Or perhaps we just have a toddler whose fine motor skills have reached the point where she can open up the food items on her level.

We need some reinforcement to keep food off limits during the day! But not just any old chip clip is going to get the job done, as Darah knows how to get those off in a heartbeat.

We’re gonna need some FishClips.

Sure, they are cute, but don’t be fooled…they hold on to rolled up bags like a piranha! Check out how they work with this short clip:

Darah actually really likes to play with these, but she is not yet able to successfully use them. I know the day will come when she will be able to open them, but even then I’ll be glad to have them around. They do a really excellent job of keeping our food in bags fresh!

You can also think beyond a bag of potato chips for these clips. Try them on your coffee, with frozen food, or even to hold small cords in place! FishClips also have magnets on their backs so that you can put them on the fridge! 

Buy it!: FishClips are available in packages of 3 for $6.99. They are really useful and also make great gifts! They are available at many retailers online, including Amazon.

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win two sets of FishClips!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my page.

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post does contain an affiliate link. 

Make Something “AstroBright” and Give a Brighter Year to Your Child’s School!

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This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Astrobrights Papers by Neenah Paper for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Something's in the air…can you feel it? Something exciting, something fresh and new.

It's BACK-T0-SCHOOL, and the season is just around the corner! 

AstroBrights papers want to be part of your back-to-school shopping this year, and once you see the 23 bold and beautiful colors that make Astrobrights unique, it will move to the top of your shopping list! This company provides hues that really stand out from the crowd and that will help unleash your child's creativity. 

Not only are AstroBrights papers the right choice for the school year, but they also are the perfect choice for your work projects. If you've got a great new idea or brochure, why not give it the opportunity to truly shine? Put it on AstroBrights paper! 

Another thing I really like about AstroBrights is that they offer support to educational instutitions. In fact, right now they are hosting a giveaway called the Give a Brighter Year sweepstakes, and one lucky winner will get a cash prize and school supplies valued at $30,000 for the school of his/her choice. Just imagine how your child's school could benefit from this great prize! You can enter over at the AstroBrights Facebook page. 

But the fun doesn't stop there for AstroBrights. They also are hosting a "Make Something AstroBright" design challenge. You can upload your awesome crafts on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest using the hashtag #goastrobrights and then you'll be eligible for lots of great prizes! How awesome is it that you can win a prize by doing something fun with your kids and with AstroBrights paper? Love it! 

As you are shopping for your back to school supplies, you might want to pick up more than one package of AstroBrights, as you and your children might work your way through an entire pack before the first day of school arrives! 

Visit Sponsor's Site

DIY Liquid Soap Without Glycerin

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I’ve been wanting to make my own liquid soap for a long while now. I see posts about it all over Pinterest. And I know it can’t be hard, as I have successfully made my own laundry detergent in the past.

But there’s one thing that has stood in my way.

GLYCERIN.

It seems to be an ingredient in most every liquid soap recipe. And I don’t know what the heck it is! Or where to find it! So those liquid soap pins just sit in my DIY board on Pinterest, mocking me.

But then, two weeks ago, we started to run out of soap. And my frugal self would not be satisfied by simply buying some more! Oh no, I was going to make my own soap, gosh darn it!

So I did a little internet sleuthing to figure out just how important this glycerin stuff really is.

I’ll save you some research, if you don’t mind. The long and short of it is that glycerin is a moisturizer. It’s a very good thing to have in your liquid soap, but it most definitely isn’t necessary.

SWEET!

So here’s how I made liquid soap without any glycerin:

First, gather your ingredients. I opted for Ivory soap (since it already contains moisturizers…good choice, right?). You also need a grater and something to hold your soap shards. I went with a pie plate.

After you have grated your soap, take a moment to let your kid play with the soap shards. They feel really neat and make for a good sensory activity. Make sure they don’t eat it, though! But again, this is Ivory, so if they do eat it, it will just taste gross, but isn’t going to cause major problems.

Add your soap flakes from one bar of soap to water on the stove. Based on other recipes I have seen, I used 10 cups of water for one bar of soap. Keep the heat on medium-low (no need to boil this! In fact, you’ll probably have a real mess on your hands if you do!).

Once all the flakes have dissolved, take the pot off the heat and let the mixture cool completely. I actually let mine sit for close to 24 hours. After sitting for about 6 hours, my mixture was really dense, which concerned me. But after several more hours sitting, the consistency improved. So give the mix PLENTY of time to rest. My end product had the consistency seen above.

I then used a funnel to get the mix into a hand soap pump. The one pictured was a gift but you a similar one is found here. Pouring straight from the pot might result in a bit of a mess, so if you go that route, take extra care, and maybe have someone else on hand to help.

While the final product is a bit runnier than traditional liquid soap, you can see from this picture that the lather is still pretty decent. One bar of soap made enough liquid soap to fill my soap dispenser probably 6 times. What a bargain!

So if glycerin is standing in between you and some homemade liquid soap, cast your cares aside and just go for it!

And by the way, I’ve since learned where you can find glycerin. Check the first aid section of whatever store you frequent. You will likely find it there!

This post may contain affiliate links. 

Elizabeth Grant Eyeshadow and Lip Gloss Review and GIVEAWAY!!

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Elizabeth Grant is a Canadian makeup and skincare company that I have featured before. They have exceptional products and some of the most clever packaging I have ever seen. I think of them as the Carrie Bradshaw of skincare…bubbly, fun, and putting up a really good fight against aging.

Recently I was sent two of their new makeup products, and I love them both!

First up, their new lip gloss line called Light Up Your Lips is AWESOME!!! I’ve never seen packaging like this before, and it makes me smile every time I put it on. As you twist open your gloss, an LED light comes on at the base of the applicator. There’s also a gold mirror attached to the cube. You can easily reapply your gloss in any setting this way. It is SO COOL! This line of lip gloss offers high pigment, lots of shine and deep hydration. It isn’t sticky, which is great, because that’s one of my pet peeves about most glosses. I have the color Natural and I think it is really beautiful. Light Up Your Lips retails for $20.00.

The second product I have been trying out is the Beautiful Colours Liquid Eyeshadow, which retails for $18.00.

The product actually looks very similar to a lip gloss in terms of how it is applied. I was a bit nervous about this, as liquid eyeshadows can be overpowering, and also can crease very easily. This was not the case for the Elizabeth Grant products. I found the color (Vienna Roast) to provide sufficient color so that I look put together, but it didn’t go on thick, as I expected (and feared). The shade is quite beautiful, and absolutely perfect for the summer. I also found it to have good staying power.

Elizabeth Grant already impressed me with their skincare products. Now I’m a fan of their makeup as well. I highly recommend them!

Also, be sure not to miss the HUGE giveaway on the Elizabeth Grant site! In honor of their anniversary on The Shopping Channel, they are giving away over $5,000 in products! All you have to do to enter to win is provide your name and email address! Easy!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a lip gloss and eye shadow from Elizabeth Grant!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my page.

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post may contain affiliate links. 

Sorting Game for Preschoolers: Attribute Apples Review and GIVEAWAY!!!

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There’s a new game we have in our home, and Darah asks me to play it with her every single day. It’s called Attribute Apples, and it is available at the online store I love and have highlighted several times before, Learning Resources.

The game is designed for kids ages 3-8, and it is basically a bucket full of 27 different apples with different attributes (3 different sizes, 3 different colors, 3 different physical characteristics such as having a worm, having a leaf, or having a stem).

The purpose of the game is to work on classification skills, and my child really loves the challenge. It keeps her engaged for a long time, and she does a lot of good critical thinking every time she plays.

The bucket comes with a removable divider so that you can put your apples in 3 different sections in the bucket. Darah loves to use the bucket to sort her apples, and as soon as she finishes, she dumps them out and starts over!

Her very favorite apples to find are the ones with the worms in them. While she is hunting for those, she ends up sorting out the ones with leaves and the ones with stems in the process.

Once your child masters color, size and characteristics, there are also other, more advanced things you can do with attribute apples so that the fun can continue. One example is to use the apples to make patterns. This is too advanced for my child at this point, but over time we’ll be able to use the apples for this purpose.

This product is very simple, but is getting played with VERY frequently. I think it is well-designed and really captures the attention of little ones. I highly recommend it! It retails for $21.99.

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win Attribute Apples!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my page.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

My Favorite Board Game Gets zAPPed: Monopoly Review

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Growing up, my family’s very favorite game to play was Monopoly. It was a good fit for our family, who valued healthy competition, wheeling and dealing, and seeing something through to the end, even if it took hours! A short monopoly game in my house would last 2-3 hours, and I even recall a few marathon games that lasted more than a day to finish (with breaks for eating and sleeping but not too much else!).

If you have an iPad and are a Monopoly fan, then you are in for a real treat, because this board game has officially been zAPPed! There’s now a version of Monopoly that incorporates your iPad for a more interactive version of the game.

Tim and I played a round together last week, and I’ve been itching to play again ever since! One of the features I really love and that feels very updated for the modern world is that there are no dollar bills to mess with. Every player gets a bank card that gets used for transferring funds. That actually makes the game go a bit faster, and nobody is burdened with the task of being the banker.

There are also fun additions to the classic game. For example, there is a fun little game you can play to try to get yourself out of jail when you land there. And some of the chance games involve all players so that everyone has a crack at a potential reward.

My only complaint about the game is that the bank cards are not quite as sensitive as I think they should be. Sometimes you have to scan the card multiple times before it takes. I think that’s a small problem in the grand scheme and isn’t so annoying that I wouldn’t recommend the game. I’m actually thinking about buying a copy for my brother and his family this Christmas. I know he loves the game, and I think he’d really enjoy this version as well.

Monopoly zAPPed is $29.99 and is best suited for those 8 and up. It is available at mass merchandise retailers.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own. 

107 Days Until I Transform Into a Greek Goddess: Halloween Prep!

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Halloween is in 107 days. That probably still sounds like plenty of time to decide what you’d like to be for Halloween.

That’s right, I’m talking about YOU. Not your kids.

Are you wondering why on earth you should be dressing up for Halloween? I’ll tell you why: because IT IS FUN! And your kids will absolutely LOVE that mom wore a costume when taking them trick or treating, or to the local harvest carnival.

I will tell you truthfully that last year I didn’t dress up to take Darah trick or treating. I was in the throes of morning sickness and it was an accomplishment for me just to get out of the house. But Tim dressed up as Harry Potter, and Darah LOVED that her daddy was in costume.

So I’ll be joining the ranks this year. And I decided to go with the same type of costume that was my all-time favorite from all my childhood years of trick or treating: Greek goddess.

That probably sounds like an unusual choice for a child! In the third grade my class did a unit on Greek mythology and I loved it so much that I asked to be Aphrodite for Halloween that year. From the Greek titans all the way down to the half god/half mortal beings, I found the entire concept of Greek mythology to be completely fascinating. I still do, in fact! So it seemed like a great choice to go with.

I chose a goddess costume from Anytime Costumes. I can’t show you a picture of me in it, because to be 100% honest, it doesn’t yet fit. And I did that on purpose. This costume is part of my inspiration for fitness. I’ve got a goal to participate in a 5K in mid-November, and I’ve already started my slow, but steady training to be ready.

One of the benefits of getting my body in shape to do a 5k will be a bit of weight loss. I believe that with 15 pounds shaved off my body, this costume will fit beautifully, and might just make me feel immortal, if only for a few hours!

I have taken a closer look at the costume, and while the quality isn’t something akin to what you’d find in the formal section of a department store, I still think this costume will hold up pretty well for several years of use.

There are 3 1/2 months until Halloween. I want to first encourage you to dress up with your kids this year. It will be a great family memory. And next, I want to encourage you to think about what you want to look like at Halloween. There’s still time between now and then to make some lifestyle changes if you would love to look like a goddess!

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.


Want to Party with Me on Twitter? #PlatesofPork Twitter Party!

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I’m always excited to have the opportunity to hang out with my blog readers for a while. And of course its a bonus if there are prizes to be won while we chat!

There’s just such an opportunity this Thursday, July 19th from 7-8pm EST. Please come play with me at the #PlatesofPork Twitter party, hosted by the National Pork Board and The Motherhood. We are going to be hamming it up (hee hee!) and talking about recipe ideas for pulled pork, which this Southern gal absolutely ADORES!

And yes, there will be some GREAT prizes. Five prize packs will be given away throughout the hour, based on responses to really fun trivia questions. Each prize pack has a $20 Walmart gift card (score!), a slow cooker, cutting board, three-piece BBQ tool set and a sauce bucket/brush. Heck yes you want to win!

To join the party, you need to do the following:

1. Follow @AllAboutPork and @theMotherhood on Twitter (you must be following both to be eligible for the prizes!).

2. Be on Twitter this Thursday from 7-8pm EST following the hashtag #PlatesofPork

3. Let us know you are coming! Clink this link and press the orange “count me in” button on the right-hand side –http://twtvite.com/platesofpork

 I’d also love it if when you get to the party you give me a shout out and let me know you are a reader of Stuff Parents Need! I’ll be totally excited to meet you!
See you then!