Stuff Parents Need

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

Should I Rent or Buy Textbooks? A Cost Comparison

· by · 1 Comment

This blog post was written by my younger sister, Laura. She is a junior in college, and she works very hard to make her dollars stretch. Check out what she has to say about investigating an option to rent books through Campusbookrentals.com. Oh how I wish this had been around 10 years ago when I was in college!

Every turn you make, it seems that people today are trying to find more and more ways to pinch every penny and stretch every dollar. Being a college student, if I have a penny to pinch to begin with, I’m doing great! Student loans, gas money, food money, and a wedding to plan are all tugging at my financial strings right now, and hello…it’s expensive!

One thing that tends to always sneak up on me towards the beginning of every semester is buying my text books. You’d think I’d remember that I’m going to have to fork over around $400 every semester just for textbooks alone, but it seems to always catch me off guard, and there I am, wondering how in the world I’m going to get the materials I need. $400 doesn’t exactly come easy around here! The process of buying books on campus is stressful aside from financial reasons as well. I can’t tell you how many lines I’ve stood in waiting for a text book so I can be a lucky one and get a used copy. I also can’t tell you how many times I’ve been forced to buy a BRAND new text book because I wasn’t the lucky one in line to get a used copy. So annoying!

Last semester my university started to offer the option to rent your textbooks. Basically, you pay a slightly reduced price off of what you would pay for a used copy of the text book, and you must return the book in excellent condition within a set amount of days from renting. You do not get any money back for the text book when you return it. I sort of looked into this option. I didn’t look very hard at it, because the rent price was still too high, and I figured It would make more sense to just buy a used copy (fingers crossed) and then sell it to a friend for close to the same price I paid for it. Overall, I figured it would be cheaper for me to just buy. However, a lot of my classmates took advantage of renting their textbooks and seemed to be pleased with their results because they felt like renting was their cheapest option. Whatever floats your boat, right?

But it seems that there is an even better option! I recently heard about an online textbook rental company called campusbookrentals.com. I thought It wouldn’t hurt to go online and check out some of their prices and see if they might make renting textbooks a more feasible option for me. Before I checked out the prices at campusbookrentals.com, I stopped at my university book store to price some of the books I will be buying for the Fall semester. Let me begin by saying that renting from this company is DEFINITELY something I will be doing. I’d be silly not to! I’ll let these figures speak for themselves:

Marketing Research
My bookstore: rental price $107.97
Campusbookrentals.com rental price: $37.59
Savings of $70.38!
Business Logistics
My Bookstore: rental price $120.99
Campusbookrentals.com rental price: $76.64
Savings of $44.35!
Consumer Behavior
My bookstore: rental price $92.60
campusbookrentals.com rental price: $25.59
Savings of $67.01!
Who wouldn’t want to rent from this company?? Campusbookrentals.com also offers some unbeatable deals as far as service goes, too. Shipping on all textbooks is 100% free both ways. That’s right, FREE!I also love the fact that this company seems to truly understand and meet the changing needs of college students. They understand that things may go wrong, and that professors may change book editions last minute, or we may decide to drop the course all together. The site has a 30 day money back guarantee that will cover those instances. That’s much better than the 4 day return period at my university bookstore! Also, they offer a 15 day grace period in case you need to hold on to your book a little longer during finals. That’s pretty generous in my opinion!Finally, I love that you have the option to rent your book for a whole semester (130 days), a quarter (85 days) or for the summer (55 days). That’s certainly the most flexible renting system I’ve ever seen used! Although I have not used this site yet, I am so excited about this company! You can rest assured that I am already making out my book list, and as the Fall semester approaches, I will be using campusbookrentals.com, and will probably be using them for my textbook needs until graduation!

If you are currently enrolled in school or know someone who is, be sure to check out this site. I was extremely impressed with the prices and policies of the site, and really wish I had known about them sooner!

Disclosure: I received a 50% off coupon to put toward a future purchase in exchange for my honest opinion. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Good Enough is the New Perfect (GIVEAWAY!!)

· by · 20 Comments

Once in a blue moon, a book comes out that grabs me and pulls me in completely. I am totally immersed in the material, page after page. That’s because it feels as though the book was written just for me. Like the authors tapped into my deepest joys and fears and put them in a book, in a more cohesive manner than I am able to express. Good Enough is the New Perfect, by Becky Beaupre Gillespie and Hollee Schwartz Temple, is one of those books for me.

And here’s what makes the book even more amazing…one of its foundational messages to me, the reader, is that the book WASN’T written just for me. There are thousands upon thousands of women out there who are grappling with these same issues. The issues I’m talking about and that are addressed in this book are ones that became new to me once I had Darah. They are as follows:

  • whether quitting your job is the right choice for you
  • changing your approach and attitude abut what success means
  • navigating the demands of work and home with realistic expectations
  • whether working at home or becoming an entrepreneur is right for you
  • accepting that motherhood is rarely a perfect science
  • being a good (enough) wife
  • riding out the storm when the best-laid plans go awry

You see, my old life just didn’t fit anymore once a child hit the scene. I’ve written about that topic before, here. And I think about it all the time. How do I retain a professional identity while I’ve hit the pause button on my career? Am I starting a new career by blogging? What really makes me happiest? Why can’t I have it all, just like I was promised? And why can’t I do it all brilliantly? Becky and Hollee actually tackle that very issue. Here’s what they have to say about it:

We grew up being told, “You can do anything.” And many of us took that to mean, “You must do everything.” Many of the entry barriers faced by previous generations of women were gone when we entered the workforce, and we felt obligated to make the most of that. But even as we excelled in our careers, the barrage of messages about what was expected of us at home continued. The standards for maternal excellence were rising, and to lofty heights.

Our generation of moms was the first to professionalize motherhood. There would be no mistaking the contributions of at-home moms who approached their leadership in the home the same way they have handled their Ivy League educations and Wall Street power jobs. Moms who returned to work saw the standards set by their at-home peers, and a new power struggle emerged as we tried to make the “perfect” choices. It wasn’t the Mommy War we’d expected.

In Good Enough is the New Perfect, you’ll meet several different women who re-defined what “having it all” looked like for them, and who worked to leave behind the old definitions that seem to plague us. I can’t emphasize enough how inspired I was by this book, and how much more confident I feel about the fact that I’m not currently drawing a salary, but also continuing to pursue unique opportunities that challenge me and keep my mind sharp in different ways through blogging, learning more about marketing, and of course, teaching that course on world religions online!

The point of the book is not to tell you which path you should take, as what I am choosing to do wouldn’t necessarily be best for someone else. Instead, it pushes you to think really critically about what matters to you, and then to embrace putting your time, effort and energy into those things, and leaving behind all that stuff that wears you out but gives you no satisfaction (I’m talking to you, unnecessary housework).

This book is an excellent read, and I highly recommend it for anyone, whether you work full-time, part-time, seasonally, or just work your tail off keeping your kids healthy and happy (because that’s the toughest job there is, so I have learned!). There are great ideas and things to contemplate for each and every one of us. You can purchase Good Enough is the New Perfect on Amazon for $9.41…an awesome price!

 

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own. Affiliate links may be included at no cost to you. 

A Little Bit About My Faith: Ask, Seek, Knock (GIVEAWAY!!!)

· by · 57 Comments

Here’s a little-known fact about me (at least on the internet): I have a master’s degree in theological studies.

Why?

Well, that’s a good question. The uncomplicated answer is that I used to want to be a lobbyist for faith-based social justice groups (Bread for the World is a good example of one). After trying my hand at the endeavor during graduate school, I learned that lobbying would suck the joy right out of my soul, and leave me a bitter shell of a person. Sounds harsh, but it was true.

But there was another reason I wanted to go to graduate school: I wanted to do a bit of wrestling.

With God.

Huh?!?!

Let me explain. Actually, I think I’m going to let the Tiffany from November 2002 explain (courtesy of an old Livejournal post!)

“This is my time to wrestle with God. And yes, this is a good thing! Did you know that Israel means “to wrestle with God”? I’m so digging on Judaism! Even though it is a fair criticism that I have placed myself in a super-liberal environment, and am therefore risking the level of challenge my beliefs may face, I have found that God, my colleagues, and my professors have been able to take some pretty good swings at my theological presumptions. Just when I think I’ve got it all figured out, someone knocks me over and I discover, once again, that the “sound foundation” I created was only straw.

Furthermore, I wanted to come here so that I would be around people of faith traditions other than Christianity. And man oh man, have my true colors been shown to me. I always liked to consider myself a pluralist, one who had an equal respect for all faith traditions. But seriously, people, who was I kidding? I am so not a pluralist. I am an inclusivist. I like to believe that deep down everyone is a Christian. And I am so wrong. But I love that I know that now. I acknowledge where I am right now, and am really focused on having some dialogue with people who meet God in fundamentally different ways. It’s so amazing!”

8 1/2 years after writing that, I still am striving to be a radical Christian, full of agape love for others. And I fail every. single. day. To be Christ-like is no walk in the park, and the way I approach my faith is even contrary to how many Christians approach it. But I have to go with the glimpses I have seen of the Divine and know them as my truth. I do firmly believe that God speaks to us in more ways than we might ever even realize. And we must take great care and show some humility should we ever find ourselves thinking we have it all figured out…

There are so many different doors that lead to one, but in the end, I think we each have to pick one to go through. For me, that doorway is Christianity. There are two key things I’d love to share with you about what I believe God’s relationship with people is like, based on my own understanding of the Divine. First, I believe that God is intimately connected with humans, and plays an active role in our lives. God wants us to reach out, to ask questions and yes, even to wrestle with God. Second, I believe that God doesn’t want to be thought of as a magic Genie. We are given free will and the ability to make our own choices and to do the hard work we need to do in order to get through life successfully.

This is why Matthew 7:7 is so appealing to me. Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” This captures the essence of how I believe God wants to be in relationship with us. Never hesitate to reach out to God, for it is God’s deepest hope that we will engage in a relationship with Him (it pains me to use gender-exclusive language for God, but alas, I caved in here). And God’s gifts to us are infinite, though perhaps not always what we expect. But on the flip-side, get yourself out there and Ask, Seek and Knock for yourself. Do not leave it all up to God to do for you. You play a role in your destiny, as well.

At least that’s how I interpret this passage. I’m curious to hear what you, my readers, think of it. What does it make you think when you hear it?

Today as part of this post I’m featuring a beautiful canvas print from Red Letter Words. I met Dee, the owner of the business, at Blissdom. After returning home, I found myself visiting her site again and again. I thought her prints were lovely and very inspiring. She has many quotes from the Bible put to canvas, but her selection goes beyond biblical references. I especially love that she can put together custom canvas art, using whatever words or quotes inspire you!

Prices at Red Letter Words vary based upon the size of the print you selected. My print is 12×12, which is an excellent size because it is a bit larger than an 8×10, so it stands out a bit more. Right now mine isn’t even on the wall, but is on the buffet in my dining room. I look at it every single day, and it reminds me to turn to God, and to also take action, myself, if I am in need of something. It has been a blessing.

Win it!: Red Letter Words is excited to offer one Stuff Parents Need reader a 12×12 cafe mount print of your choice (excluding custom orders) (a $55 value!). The contest will run until May 5th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before a the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.
EDIT: Please note that I originally posted the value incorrectly…$55 is correct. I apologize for the confusion).

Mandatory entry: Tell me anything that you feel like sharing about your faith, or about your thoughts on religion or a relationship to the Divine. Anything related to the topic works for me!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Tell me the print that you would pick out if you won.
2. Blogger love: Like Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

Rare bonus entry: Like Red Letter Words on Facebook

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

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

Peanut Butter & Co.: Win a Trip to NYC!!!

· by · 2 Comments

I love peanut butter. And if you don’t have a peanut allergy, I bet you do, too! What’s not to love? It’s smooth and creamy (at least that’s how I prefer it!) and yummy and sweet! It fills me up quickly and gives me fuel that my body needs to trek through the rest of my day (tip: try a banana with a dollop of peanut butter on for a 2pm snack…it’s better than caffeine, in my opinion!).

Today I am so excited to tell you about Peanut Butter & Co., a company that began in New York City as a small sandwich shop, selling just peanut butter sandwiches (only in New York, right?!). Their products were SO outstanding that they now offer their specialty peanut butters in over 10,000 stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, including places like Kroger, Target, Whole Food and Wal-Mart, just to name a few!


I tried 3 of their flavors. First up, is Cinnamon Raisin Swirl. What a delightful spin on peanut butter! It is good on pretty much anything that you’d put peanut butter on and might just be my favorite of the 3 (although the rankings are painfully close). I would call this a must try, for sure!

Next, I tried Dark Chocolate Dreams, which combines the great tastes of peanut butter and dark chocolate into one wonderful jar. I mean, what more do I have to say? Chocolate meets peanut butter…you are going to want to buy this, too!

Finally, we tried White Chocolate Wonderful. Depending on the day, this is my favorite peanut butter from this company (I know…I already said Cinnamon Raisin was my favorite…I’m so torn, you guys!). This just has a rich, creamy flavor that dares you not to come back for another spoonful.

Basically, you just can’t go wrong with Peanut Butter &Co.;’s flavors. I’m going to be on the lookout for The Bee’s Knees around town, because I know that this peanut butter and honey blend is going to knock my socks off!

Each jar retails for $6.00 and they are worth the price, no question, whatsoever. Click here to find your nearest store!

ALSO…Peanut Butter & Co. has teamed up with Warner Home Video, Peanuts Worldwide and Delta Vacation to offer a fabulous giveaway, all in celebration of the release of the movie Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown.

Check out the Happiness in NYC Sweepstakes! From the press release: Five lucky winners will be chosen from three contest periods running throughout 2011, corresponding with the release of each of the three new Peanuts DVDs. These fifteen winners will each receive a prize pack containing Peanut Butter & Co. products, Peanuts DVDs and merchandise. Out of these winners one grand prize winner will be selected to win a deluxe trip for four to experience “Happiness in New York City.” The vacation package includes round trip airfare and hotel accommodations as well as lunch at the Peanut Butter & Co. Sandwich Shop, tickets to a Broadway show, and

For a complete set of rules and to enter, go to http://ilovepeanutbutter.com/happiness

If you win the trip, can I come with you??? 🙂

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Celebrating Children of All Abilities: Love Me for Who I Am (GIVEAWAY!!!)

· by · 19 Comments

I think one of the very best ways to teach children about differences that people may have is to celebrate them. There’s a new cd out called Love Me for Who I Am by Brady Rymer, and it is all about celebrating children of all abilities. From the website, “the songs will invite deeper understanding and appreciation of children with Autism and other disorders by shedding light on just how much we all have in common.”

As Darah gets a bit older, and makes more friends, I have no doubt that we will come to know a family affected by Autism, learning differences, or being differently-abled. Children are naturally curious, and I expect that Darah will ask questions. When she does, I hope that I’m able to frame differences such as these in ways that are more positive and uplifiting, and breaking out some of these songs will be a helpful resources as she learns that people are different in so many ways, yet also so very similar.

Buy it!: Love Me for Who I Am is an excellent choice to add to any child’s collection. It is currently available on Amazon for $14.73. Five percent of the proceeds from this album will benefit Autism Speaks.

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to win your own copy of Brady Rymer’s Love Me for Who I Am! The contest will run until May 3rd at 11:49pm EST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me which song on the cd appeals the most to you (samples can be listened tohere).

My answer: Keep Your Wiggle Alive is a really fun one that we are currently enjoying.

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Like Brady Rymer on Facebook
2. Blogger love: Follow Stuff Parents Need on Google Friend Connect (found on my sidebar)

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

Disclosure: I received a complimentary cd for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Shaklee Basic H2 and Shaklee Scour Off Review

· by · 3 Comments

In my time as a blogger, there has been a company that my readers have mentioned to me several times, and that I have occasionally read reviews from other bloggers about: Shaklee. This is a direct sales company to you, and I didn’t have a rep. To be honest with you, I’m always wary of finding a rep when I’m not really sure if I’ll like the product. I just hate feeling that pressure to buy, you know?!

There was one rep online (Kiki) who had a blog that I found to be interesting, so I starting following her blog. What I liked so much about it was that in addition to blogging about her life, in general, she would also blog about different Shaklee products, and how she was using them and the results that she was seeing. It always helps to see a product in action in someone’s home!

Recently, she posted an invitation for bloggers to participate in an Earth Day blog hop, and to get to try a Shaklee product. I simply couldn’t resist! So here we are, and I am BURSTING to tell you about how great Shakleee is!

All the bloggers in this particular hop were sent a sample of Basic H2. The sample provided enough powder to make one 16 oz bottle of all-purpose cleaner and one 16 oz bottle of window cleaner. I really wish I had taken a picture of the sample…it was HALF the size of my thumb. Seriously. Shaklee takes the term ULTRA CONCENTRATED very seriously. I’ve never seen anything like it!

After consulting with Kiki about my particular house cleaner needs (I’ve been desperately searching for a carpet cleaner), I learned that Basic H2 (otherwise known as liquid gold) can also make carpet cleaner. I just needed to use more of the sample to make it. After doing a bit of mental math, I took a 5 oz spray bottle that I had and made carpet cleaner, and I took the remaining sample and make a solution for my Rubbermaid Reveal Spray Mop. Yeah, this stuff can make mopping solution, too!

I have several spots on the carpet in our bedroom that look just plain gross. Tim and I have been resigned to the fact that renting a carpet shampooer is a must before we move out, or else we might risk losing some of our deposit.

Here’s one carpet stain before:


And after:

And here’s one more before:


And after:

This stuff ROCKS! And here’s what makes Shaklee products even better: they aren’t harmful to the environment! Woo hoo! That’s become a must for me with my household cleaning products. These are totally free of harmful chemicals and work just as well as the them. Perfect!

I was so smitten by my Shaklee sample that I placed an order for a few products, myself, and took advantage of a terrific offer that Shaklee has right now: free membership with a $30 or more purchase! Membership typically costs $19.95 and entitles you to discounts on every single purchase you make, as well as special notification about promotions being offered. I ordered some Shaklee® Basic-H2 (one bottle lasts up to 2 years, according to many Shaklee users) and I also ordered some Scour Off for my glass stove top and some liquid dish concentrate (we were running out, so I might as well try the Shaklee stuff next!). I decided to become a customer because I saw firsthand how well one of their products worked. Also, by the time you account for just how long each product lasts, using Shaklee is VERY inexpensive….VERY!!! Kiki also has some other special deals going on that she’s not even allowed to advertise, so I can’t tell you what they are here, but contact her at healthy-solutions@hotmail.com and she’ll fill you in!

Now, pay close attention, because there are TWO giveaways going on right now. One is specific to this post, and one is for all 10 blogs participating in the hop.

How the Blog Hop Giveaway works:

There is going to be a prize of $30 paypal (!!!!) to one winner from all the blogs participating. Each blog will have a letter that you need to collect. When you have them all collected, email the letters that you have turned into a phrase back to healthy-solutions@hotmail.com with “Grand prize giveaway” in the subject line. One winner will be drawn from all correctly submitted entries! This giveaway ends on April 30th and the winner will be drawn by Kiki.

My letter: E

Blog to go to next: Virginia Sweet Pea!


How the Shaklee giveaway on Stuff Parents Need works:
FIVE of my readers are each going to receive the same sample I received of H2, which is enough to make 1 full size bottle of all-purpose cleaner and one 15 oz bottle of window cleaner! The contest will run until April 30th at 11:59pm EST when winners will be draw via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry:
The mandatory entry is to follow Kiki’s blog, A Home Made by Kiki through Google Friend Connect (you’ll find the button on her sidebar…very easy to do!). Come back here and leave a comment that you did!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: Like A Home Made by Kiki on Facebook

2. Blogger love: Like Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

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

Disclosure: I received a complimentary sample for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

I LOVE My Woman’s Day Planner (GIVEAWAY!!!)

· by · 47 Comments

Let me be honest, I LOVE technology. I do 80% of all my reading online, through blogs, online magazines, online news sources, etc. I recently saw a Kindle for the first time, and very quickly changed my mind about them…the way the pages of the books are displayed is really incredible. It looks different from a computer screen…much more book-like! So a Kindle could be in my future as my main source for books. I also do all my banking online, and Tim and I do a lot of our household management stuff online, too.

And yet, when it comes to making a calendar or a to-do list, I just can’t be bothered with electronic versions. I have tried. SO many times I have tried. Tim has worked diligently to keep our family calendar updated in Google docs. I really wish that I was interested in helping him with it. But to me, if it isn’t on paper, it just isn’t real. This is where I draw the line for how technology can interface with me. I MUST have a paper to-do list, and a physical calendar.
I actually haven’t had a calendar in a little over a year, mostly because I keep trying to make the Google calendar work for me. And guess what? IT ISN’T WORKING! I do have to-do lists, but they are frequently lost, and I never have a bigger picture idea of how my week or my month is looking. My old system worked fine day-to-day, but didn’t work well at all when trying to plan for the ebbs and flows of the week.

Did you catch that? I said my OLD system. That’s because I have a new one. And I big puffy heart love it. It is called the Woman’s Planner, and it is the creation of a mompreneur named Corri. She spent several years seeking out the perfect planner to help her keep life with her family organized. And after a futile search, she decided to make her own! I get the sense that Corri is very keen to hear what users of her planner think, as she has made some tweaks to her original design so that the planner can best meet the needs of the women who use it.

So here are all the features you’ll find in this planner:

  • 8×10 coil book
  • 3″ fold over page marker – so you won’t lose your place
  • A newly designed monthly ‘budget page’ complete with fixed and variable expenses
  • the keep it all together ‘social planning’ page
  • the same amazing half page format to keep you sane
  • birthdays at a glance page
  • yearly finance/budget page
  • household appliance tracking
  • wish lists for everything your wishin’ on
  • xmas planning
  • a page to keep track of what your saving for
  • contacts
  • notes
  • the most incredible extra – pocket dividers in between each month to hold all those bills, cards, school notes etc.

What I’m absolutely gaga over is the fact that it has these half-pages at the top and the monthly view at the bottom. This is one of the key things that I was missing with my old system. I was sort of missing the forest for all the trees, because I had a very clear picture of each day, but no real sense for what was coming up in the following days or weeks.

I’m the type of person who writes down everything I need to do…I’ll even write it down just to cross it off if I did something not on my original list! So I was a bit intimidated by the lack of space for writing humongous lists each and every day. But I have quickly learned some shorthand, and I’ve also stepped away from writing down every little thing, and not suffered one bit from it! Still, you can see by the picture that I use pretty much every square inch of this planner!

I find myself not using the financial section of the planner, but that’s because I have found a software system that is working well for me and my family. If you aren’t writing anything down and are just sort of winging it, then this section gives you a great place to start to get a bit more organized.

There are some additional sections of the planner that I haven’t yet made use of, like the holiday planning sections and the list of contacts, and that’s because I do turn to online sources to help me keep track of those areas. But I don’t think I’ll ever turn over the daily planner, and this is a paper version that I really and truly love. I highly recommend it to anyone out there looking for the perfect planner!

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader is going to get your choice of a Woman’s Planner or a Girls Planner (Girls Planner available in June) from Chaos Simplified! The contest will run until May 2nd at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States and Canada. Limit one entrant per household, please. You can get the 2011 planner on sale now for $28.95!
Mandatory entry: Tell me which planner you want, and why you think it is a good fit for you or someone you love.
Additional entries:
1. Blogger love: Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need by RSS or email
2. Blogger love: Like Stuff Parents Need on Facebook
Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

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

You Are What You Eat: Be fine Skincare (I’m In Love)

· by · Leave a Comment

Today I want to tell you about a brand of skincare products that is approaching the pursuit of healthy skin in a slightly different way: by feeding our skin with food. Yes, food! You are curious to hear more, aren’t you? I know I was!

The company is called Be fine, and I’ve included a link to a really good (and quick) video that I want to encourage you to watch. It gives you a lot of insight into how this company got started and what it is really all about. When I see videos like this, where I can tell that it is heart behind a company, and not just a bottom line, I feel encouraged by their vision, and also more comfortable as a customer. Check it out and then pop back over to this post! http://www.befine.com/kind.html


There are 3 products that I want to highlight. Let’s start with the one that totally and completely blew my socks off, shall we? It’s the Be fine Exfoliating Cleanser, and I am madly in love with it. MADLY. As in, I’m telling anyone out there who is looking for a new cleanser and who is willing to spend a little bit more to get some serious quality to go buy this. I just can’t imagine anyone not loving it! It is made with sugar cane extract (which means it smells divine). But there’s a greater purpose beyond the smell for using this ingredient. From their site, “Sugar Cane Extract is a naturally appearing plant-based alpha hydoxyl acid. Long-term use of low concentration AHA’s increases collagen and elastin synthesis, and also boosts protein regeneration in the skin. Sugar is popular in hydrating formulas for the skin as it is known to have good moisture-binding properties.”
I love how this feels when I apply it…just like an exfoliator at first, but as you keep rubbing it in, it becomes this rich lather. Seriously, ladies, this is a WINNER.

Next up, check out the Firming Toner. which makes use of Ginger, Willow Bark and Aloe to help soothe your skin and close the pores. Once again, this is a product that smells so good you could almost eat it, and my experience was that it did not over-dry my skin, as toners sometimes do.

Finally, I tried their Night Cream, which is made with cocoa, millet and rice bran. Rice bran proteins help collagen form and they also help protect collagen and elasticity, which are two elements that we need if we want to look as young as we feel! 🙂 It also contains a high amount of Vitamin E, which softens our skin. Plain and simple, I loved this product. I use it at night and my skin still feels moisturized (but not at all greasy) in the morning.

This is just a sampling of the many products offered by Be fine. You’d better believe I’ve already made a list of the products I want to try next from this company. First on the list is their Eye Brightening Treatment, which contains avocado oil. I know from experience that this is a highly effective ingredient, and I’m happy to find it in a product on the market!

So where can you pick up Be fine products? Right on their website! While I know their price points are on the steep side (at least they are for my budget), I think you’ll also find that the quality far surpasses what you picked up on sale at Rite Aid last month. Give them a try; your skin will thank you!

Disclosure: I received complimentary products for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Introducing the Most Awesome Mouse EVER!!!

· by · Leave a Comment

Do you have a laptop? If so, please tell me you don’t use the built in mouse on the keyboard. It is so cumbersome, and bad for your wrists!
Most likely, you quickly grew tired of that and now have a mouse and a mouse pad that you take with you everywhere you take your laptop. For a while we had a traditional wired mouse. This got the job done, but it was still cumbersome to use while sitting on the bed, and that cord always annoyed me.
So then we got a wireless mouse that had a red laser coming out of it. I absolutely adored the fact that it was wireless, but the laser always scared me, truth be told! And the batt
eries drained quite quickly on it. And the usb that you plugged in to get the mouse to work was quite long, which made using it on u
neven surfaces a huge challenge (I always was afraid it would break off!). Oh yeah, and then the mouse just kind of stopped working after a few months. So…back to the drawing board.

But over the past few weeks I’ve been trying out a new mouse from Smartfish, and seriously, I only have great things to say about it! It is called the Whirl Mini Notebook Mouse with ErgoMotion. Here are some of my f
avorite features of the mouse:
1. The USB that connects to the mouse is TINY! There’s no worry about it getting damaged if I have the laptop on an uneven or soft surface, such as a bed or couch.
2. The fact that the USB is so small could be a minus (because it is easy to lose) BUT there is a place to store it inside the mouse whenever you are transporting it…brilliant design!
3. The mouse responds beautifully to your movements. Its level of sensitivity seems just perfect to me.
4. The ergonomic design is very comfortable (I sometimes find ergonomic designs to be quite uncomfortable, ironically).
5. Getting used to the mouse takes all of 30 seconds, and then you’ll never look back.
6. The battery seems quite long-lasti
ng. By this time I would have already changed the batteries on my old mouse.
7. The design is sleek. This is one pretty mouse!

Quite simply, there is no other mouse like this on the market. It is the first truly ergonomic compact mouse! I’m a BIG fan of this mouse. Tim loves it, too. He even asked if he could take it to work. But I’m not so sure I want to let go of my precious! 🙂
I should also add that it is designed for left-handed AND right-handed users. So cool! And it is designed so that your hand and wrist are never in a fixed position, which reduces your risk of Repetitive Stress Injury.
Buy it!: The Whirl Mini Notebook Mouse with Ergomotion is available for $49.95 and comes in 6 different colors! Your laptops may come and go, but this mouse will stay with you for the long haul!

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. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commissions 16 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. Tomoson Product review & giveaway Disclosure.