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InkJoy Pens Review

 

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Papermate has come out with a great new line of pens that have been a hit in our family! INKJOY! We were pleased to be able to review Inkjoy 300 RT through Smiley 360.

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Inkjoy 300 RT features an extended rubberized grip for optimal comfort in writing. The translucent color-tinted body is modern and stylish, while the metal clip provides long lasting durability.

We REALLY like these pens! They are colorful and fun to use! We loved that the ink is the color of the pen! Sometimes the outer shel only houses a blue or black ink…but NOT inkjoy! They are “true” to their colors! I love having a color option when using a pen! It is so fun to write in pink, green, orange,etc!

The overall feel of the pen is wonderful. The rubberized grip is fantastic and the pen glides across the page effortlessly when writing! I would suggest this writing implement as a staple for work and home!

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Check out the papermate website for more injoy love! 

 

 

 


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BiteSizers

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Meal time is always crazy at my house. With a growing 5 year old boy and an almost 2 year old girl (going on 15), preparing meals is always hectic.  I try my best to have them eat what we eat, but sometimes it’s hard. Trying to cut food up into small enough pieces for their liking while they are yelling “I’m hungry, “Is it ready yet”, etc. can make any mom struggle to have a smooth meal time.  Anything that makes this part easier, I’m signing up for!

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Thank goodness for BiteSizers! Upon first opening they look like everyday scissors. I thought to myself, they’ll probably work the same as kitchen scissors.  Guess what? They work a whole lot better! Way better than using a fork a knife. Who would have thought?! Simply take whatever you are eating, use BiteSizers to cut pieces to your liking, and that’s it!  I was honestly amazed at how easily it cut through this quesadilla.

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I then went on to cut up some cantaloupe. Usually I use a fork and knife to cut fruit up.  Using BiteSizers was a whole lot easier. I went from cutting a quesadilla to cantaloupe, and then I cut up a PBJ just for fun.  They work on any food that I would ever feed my kids.  I love that it has a Snap-On cap to keep the blades good and for easy travel. I can throw them in my diaper bag easily.  There’s even a handy built-in sizer guide so you can cut food to the size recommended by experts as best for children.

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Since I started using BiteSizers both of my kids have tried more foods than ever. It’s just so easy to cut a little bite off of whatever I’m eating and share with my kids. BiteSizers are available exclusively at

www.mixedpears.com and www.amazon.com

I would highly recommend them to anyone with young children.

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Week #43 Saturday Top Five Laughs

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Ready to roll with The Mommyhood Chronicles for Saturday Top Five Laughs – week #43 (for us)? Because we are!

5. One of our children, whom shall remain nameless, responded to a question in their school work with “something”. Of course it is something! We have a smarty pants on our hands.

4. Here’s how a child filled out a quiz like this:

Student Quiz 2015
mm…not sure if they didn’t understand what they were suppose to do or what.

3. Their response to our grading it, “Whatevs”….a classic Robert Gould response. Let’s just say we need an attitude adjustment towards school.

2. One son slicked back his hair like Elvis and was chanting something as he came out of the bathroom.

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1. We had friends over on Sunday and our youngest daughter literally picked up their 10 year old son to get him to go in the direction SHE wanted him to go in! Bossy much? She is in the middle of four boys…maybe that enables her bossiness??


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New Lip Balm Collection from Mwah

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If you are like us, you are trying to make wiser, healthy choices not only in your grocery store shopping but also beauty and personal care products. For several years we have been using natural alternatives from shampoos and toothpaste to even lip balm. There are some ingredients in commercial lip balms that you will want to avoid, such as: parabens and sulfates. That’s why we made the switch. We go through a lot of lip balm during the winter months so we were eager to try a new natural lip care called Mwah®.

Mwah offers an effective, fresh, high-quality, and healthy spin on lip care that’s still affordable for all young women. Mwah lip care products are natural, void of harmful chemicals and preservatives, never tested on animals, produced in a 100% solar powered factory in southern California and with a portion of all profits donated to the World Wildlife Fund. The collection includes three lip balm products: a slider tub, a stick and a gloss, all available in a variety of yummy flavors for girls looking for an irresistible pucker.

Mwah Review

Mwah has very nice packaging and included a sturdy, plastic drawstring bag.

Our nearly 18 year old daughter liked it and says this about Mwah, “A bit greasy but it smells good and keeps your lips soft. It does not really have a taste so that should prevent Jr. from eating it!”

Our oldest son, nearly 13, thought it was too oily and doesn’t smell nice, but he is a boy and this is a girl product! ;)

The rest of us thought it smelled good! The smells are very true to their flavors and are not fake.

The other girls liked the extra oiliness because it made them feel like they did not have to apply so much.

So the majority liked Mwah!

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Mwah Product Line:
Lip Balm Slider Tub (SRP: $3.99). Flavors: Coconut Chick, Mango Tango, Sweet Tart
Lip Balm Stick (SRP: $1.99/single, $4.99/3-pack). Flavors: Creamsicle, Mango Madness, Strawberry Sweetheart
Lip Gloss (SRP: $2.99). Flavors: Berrylicious, Peachy Keen, Sugar Lips

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You can check out the full line of products and get more info at http://www.perfectlypoutable.com.

Mwah is currently available at CVS/pharmacy, Ulta, HEB, Amazon.com and Meijer stores. Over the next few months, the products will be available nationwide at retailers including Target, Walmart, and Walgreens.


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Pretty Farm Cats – Wordless Wednesday

The only animals making the move with us are our three pretty farm cats and our loveable pooch! Too bad the rest of the animals were not small enough to fit into a vehicle with all of us!

These three below are looking sleepy, aren’t they?

FFR Pretty Farm Cats


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Moving to Nova Scotia

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We are looking to move back to the Halifax region, but realistically could be anywhere in the center sections of the province.

Moving to Nova Scotia

For many years I dreamed of moving back to Nova Scotia, however, my husband always had a job here in Illinois and his mom and brother were here. When we moved here to the farm three years ago, I had pretty much settled into life in Illinois. Then another death in my family occurred. My husband’s second bout of unemployment in six years was encroaching upon a year and we threw the idea of moving back to Nova Scotia out there. To my surprise EVERYONE was on board…everyone but me. I was the least excited person in our family. ME!? My husband wondered why we had not thought of this back in 2013 when he lost his job and so did I. We got our passports, started researching moving back, farming, housing, etc. with the intention of visiting Nova Scotia in the fall of 2014.

When we visited Nova Scotia in November/December 2014 we checked out some farm properties and I worked on our children’s proof of Canadian Citizenship and getting other paper work started. Let’s just say it is not a simple or easy move! When I moved here to the United States, it was just little old me with a few pieces of luggage and boxes. Now we have a boat load of children AND stuff!

FFR Gould Children at the Beach in NS 2014
This beach is in the Pictou section in the map at the beginning of this post. And no, not all beaches in Nova Scotia are rocky!

We are in the process of selling our animals. It is rather bittersweet. We thought these were our “forever” animals. There is a lot of paper work and expense to transport animals across the border to Canada. We held out hope we might be able to take them with us, but finally decided it was just too much. We have a buyer for our cows, a farmer friend, thankfully. It is a relief to know they are going to a good home. We have a buyer for the 33 chickens we have left, they will be picked up soon. We have a buyer for our compact Kubota tractor. Our horse is returning to his owner, he was just with us on a free-lease (meaning we paid for nearly all his upkeep for the privilege of “owning” him). If we had of been moving within Illinois, his owner would have allowed us to keep him. He is nearly 31 years old and she couldn’t bear the thought of not seeing him again, plus a three day drive would have been rough on an older horse. Only the goats and sheep left to sell, plus a few odds and ends such as a goat milk stanchion, cow panels, t-posts (though we priced them in N.S. and are thinking we might take them with us!) and things like that.

It is a bit surreal and I do not think it has really sunk in yet. I have not even seen all there is to see in Chicago, let alone Illinois. You do not know how many “if onlys” we have been voicing! Guess we will still have lots to do when we come back for a visit.

Meanwhile we have sooooo much to do to get ready for a major move across country.


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Week #42 Saturday Top Five Laughs

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I think I am finally on a roll for Saturday Top Five Laughs posts. Woohoo! Once again, joining The Mommyhood Chronicles for Saturday Top Five Laughs – week #42 (for us)!

4. Hubby slipped in our hallway and knocked over the water cooler. You would have thought that World War III broke out.

3. Our oldest wanted our youngest to come and give her a kiss goodnight and Jr.’s response was, “No, you didn’t call me ‘the chosen one‘.” Oh my!

2. I am sitting here and I hear a voice groan, “I’m pregnant!” I look over and one of our daughters is sitting next to me with a ball beneath her clothes. Then another daughter does the same thing with another ball, but bigger ball. The first daughter goes, “How many children do you have in there?” Then a third daughter does and and the second daughter asks here, “How many children do you have in there?” I think they have lost it! Now the first daughter just exclaimed, with the big ball beneath her shirt, “Ahhh I am having quadruplets!”

1. Watching children learn to use the yo-yo is funny!

And I cannot think of a fifth one….brain is fried or frozen. Take your pick!


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Hermes the Guernsey-Jersey Bull Calf – Wordless Wednesday

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Remember our Guernsey-Jersey bull calf? We sold him in December. He was closing in on nearly 300 pounds at almost 3 months of age. We had to take some photos before he left for his new home. Of course, he was not very cooperative and moved quite a bit. Hopefully these photos show how big, healthy and cute he was/is!

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We did not even advertise Hermes was for sale. Someone had come to our farm for something else and asked to buy him and we decided to go for it. He was picked up a few days later. Comet, his mama missed him for a while and still does at times, but she is adapting now that we have her mama, Miss Moo back from her date with the Jersey bull.


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Week #41 Saturday Top Five Laughs

Saturdays Top Laughs dentistmelsbbutton-11

Hey, a second week in a row, I’m on a roll for Saturday Top Five Laughs posts. Let’s join The Mommyhood Chronicles for Saturday Top Five Laughs – week #41 (for us)!

5. A son, “I think I have high blood pressure because of the dishes.” He happens to be on dish duty this month. :o

4. Hubby through a paper this week and it landed in the bushes. Being a sly wife-y, I took a photo! lol!

FFR Robert in bush

3. Our oldest daughter told our youngest that he is the chosen one so now when you ask him, “What are you?” He says, “The chosen one.” He even told our daughter when she wouldn’t give him some candy that he was “The chosen one!”

2. Jr. was eating pizza and this is what he did with the cheese…

FFR Jr and cheesey pizza

1. Oldest son accidentally upset youngest son and when he went to comfort him, youngest son bit him in the shoulder. Ouch and ugh!


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How To Pick The Perfect Swim Instructor

How To Pick The Perfect Swim Instructor

by Kaitlin Gardner

When we started a family, I wanted my kids to learn how to swim. It was a skill that they would use for a lifetime, and our family would be around the water many times. Just going to the local pool and signing them up for classes didn’t feel right for me. I did homework to find the best instructor I could for my kids.

Ask around. I asked a number of parents with older children about their swim instructors. I heard some good things, and some parents steered me away from programs where they didn’t feel satisfied with the results. I was glad I took that time, because it helped me narrow down the choices before I went any further. I’ve found some great resources with more detail about swim programs for kids:

Boy Swimming

Photo attribution: Yatmandu

Learn To Swim: The Importance of Swimming Lessons

What Every Parent Should Know About Choosing A Swimming Instructor

Swim Lesson Plans

A personal visit. Once I narrowed down my options and had a list of swim schools that sounded the strongest, I made visits. I talked to the manager of the school, to get an impression of how professional the person was, because I felt like his approach would filter down through the school. I wanted someone who took the job of teaching my kids to swim as seriously as I was approaching it. I was really impressed by the commitment of the school managers, and knew I was on the right track.

What’s the plan? I wanted to know how the teaching would be handled – would they just have the kids jump in the shallow end and start showing them the Australian crawl? I wanted classes that would work through a plan where the kids learned basics and moved forward building on that foundation. I found several schools that had similar lesson plans, and I felt really good about the thoroughness and approach of the lessons.

Check instructor credentials. I asked the school managers what certifications were required for a swim instructor. I had looked online and found the required levels of certification, and in every case, the swim schools followed those standards. I was feeling really good about the schools at this point. Some people might think I was going a little overboard, but with the lives of my kids at stake, I was willing to take extra steps.

Watch a class. I asked the managers of the schools if I could watch a class. I had read that if they don’t want you to do that, it’s a warning sign that the school is not a good one. In every case, the schools I was considering encouraged to watch their swim classes. I sat and talked with other Moms who were watching their kids in class. I got a couple of names of great instructors from them, so I made sure to sit in on those classes. I had narrowed my choices to a couple of instructors by this point.

How’s the attitude? I didn’t want my kids to be taught by somebody who was just going through the motions, so watching the class, I was checking for the attitude of the instructor. I was amazed at how calm, caring and thorough the instructors were. They made sure each child demonstrated proficiency with what was being taught before they moved on. I was astonished by how well mannered and orderly the kids were. When I made my final choice, I was confident I had found the perfect instructor for my kids. It made me smile to watch them learning how to swim, and how their confidence in the water grew with each lesson.

Kaitlin Gardner started An Apple Per Day to explore her passion for a green living lifestyle, and healthy family living. She and her husband have just moved to rural Pennsylvania, where they enjoy exploring the countryside to discover interesting and out of the way places. She is also learning how to paint watercolors.


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