Faith and Family Reviews: Product Reviews You Can Trust

Week #30 Saturday Top Five Laughs

Posted by html404 on August 2, 2014
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Humor, Kids Stuff, Saturday Top Five Laughs, Uncategorized

I have been trying to keep track of all our funnies and laughs and doing ok with it but may come up short this week for my Saturday Top Five Laughs post this week. Without further adieu… we join Mel over at The Mommyhood Chronicles for week #30 (for us) in our Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. I was out somewhere and there was a expectant mom who had three other children. In the course of the discussion something was said to which her 2-3 year old exclaims, “That means it’s a girl!” It was too cute!

4. Hubby and I were kissing, which we try to do once in awhile in front of the children for their benefit of a healthy relationship/marriage and it was normal kiss not anything passionate or anything, and our youngest daughter who is eight goes, “Ewwww….you are swallowing each other!” We have said that during movies before and the older children have picked up on it and now use it on us!

3. O, our 14 year old, was doing something goofy and then asked me if she made the cut for Saturday Top Laughs. I said, “No, but that did.” She’s happy to have the mention this week! I believe it is now the most popular “column” in our family.

2. This week Robert took the children to the county fair for the very first time (the older girls went to another county fair when they were toddlers). We agreed we would get one bag of cotton candy (that stuff goes for $6/bag nowadays!) for them to try and share. Guess what? Only ONE child liked it out of all of them! That was our oldest. The rest said it was too sugary and sickening! Score one for us as parents, right?! lol! It’s ok to rejoice is small victories once in awhile, isn’t it?

1. So I said to my oldest son that I needed one more funny for this week as he walked buy to check the zucchini bread/cake he is making for tomorrow’s breakfast. This is what he said, quite seriously, I might add, “Dogs go wolf. Cats go meow. Cows go moo.” Silly boy!

That’s all for this week, folks! Chime in with your funnies of the week and give us a laugh!

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Wordless Wednesday – 20th Wedding Anniversary

Posted by html404 on July 30, 2014
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, News Worthy, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

Robert and I will soon celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary! Hard to believe twenty years has gone by already. Here’s to the next 20 or more!

We plan to celebrate by going out for Chinese food. Yummy!

We have only ever celebrated our anniversary by going away overnight once and that was the summer we were in Canada in 2005. A friend took care of our five kiddos. When our girls are a bit older and officially adults maybe we’ll do that again….some day.

How long have you been married? How do you usually celebrate?

Photo Copyright: totallyout / 123RF Stock Photo Used with permission.

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How to Choose a Baby Stroller

Posted by html404 on July 29, 2014
in Baby Products, Children's Health, Parenting, Safety, Uncategorized

This is a partnered post.

It’s hard to believe I am out of the stroller stage in my parenting journey. I am actually looking to sell our remaining strollers. As I end this chapter in our life I thought it would be fun to do a post about how to choose a baby stroller.

How to Choose a Baby Stroller

1. Determine your budget. Strollers can run anywhere from $10 for an umbrella stroller and upwards of thousands for top of the line strollers.

2. Durability. Durability is pretty important to us because I knew our stroller would have to hold up to numerous children.

3. Safety. Any baby product needs to be safe and free from defects.

4. Features. What features do you want your stroller to have? Cup holders, bottom basket, tall handle if you are taller, snack tray, umbrella for shade, etc.?

5. Function. Do you need a jogging stroller, a double stroller, single or single with a step for another child?

6. Storage. Is it easy to store? Do you need it to fold up easily when you are one handed? Is weight important?

Jané strollers is a new brand to me on the medium to higher end price wise – $250-$790. “The first Jané stroller was born in 1932 in Barcelona, Spain when Manuel Jané Vidal proudly created a stroller for his new born son, Ramon.” They have four different styles: Nanuq, Rider, Trider Extreme and a new PowerTwin Pro coming soon. Safety is an important issue to Jané and their products are created with babies health and safety in mind.

You can learn more about Jané here: http://www.jane-usa.com

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The Big Book of Symptoms: A-Z Guide To Your Child’s Health

Posted by html404 on July 28, 2014
in Books, Children's Health, Health, Health and Wellness, Kids Stuff, Parenting, Products for Dad, Products for Mom, Reviews, Uncategorized

The Big Book of Symptoms: A-Z Guide to Your Child’s Health

Reviewed by B, my 15 year old daughter.

I thought The Big Book of Symptoms: A-Z Guide to Your Child’s Health
was very informative. I liked the fact that it had both natural and traditional preventives and treatments. I wish it hadn’t had so much of the “take your child to the pediatrician if he/she has such and such a symptom.” I completely understand taking them to the doctor for what you think could become/be life threatening i.e. Leukemia, A Brain tumor, TSS and others like these, but I would have liked to have known what to do in the meantime to ease my child’s symptom(s).

I like that it was written by a mom and a pediatrician.

I found this book to be really informative and easy to read. The illustrations were handy and easy to understand (especially to a non-picture reader like me :)) I loved the 3-in-1 First Aid, Choking, and CPR chart you can take out and hang up, I thought that was a nice touch.

About the Authors

Edited by two esteemed members of AAP, Steven P. Shelov, MD, FAAP, and Shelly V. Flais, MD, FAAP, The Big Book of Symptoms is an A-Z directory and ultimate guide to over 100 of the most common childhood symptoms from infancy to adolescence. From bee bites and colic to fever, sleep and skin problems, the new guide is designed to help parents evaluate their child’s symptoms and distinguish minor every day concerns from more serious conditions. It also includes an illustrated first aid manual, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) chart, and age-specific safety and injury prevention tips.

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Week #29 Saturday Top Five Laughs

Posted by html404 on July 26, 2014
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Humor, Kids Stuff, Saturday Top Five Laughs, Uncategorized

Quite a few funnies for my Saturday Top Five Laughs list this week. So once again we join Mel over at The Mommyhood Chronicles for week #29 (for us) in our Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. Our eight year old daughter asked to play with my walking doll – which will be 42 next month on my birthday, got her when I was two! – So dear daughter takes her out of our closet and exclaims, “There’s my other suit!” She had dressed walking doll in her alternate bathing suit and left it on the doll when it got put away!

4. Eavesdropping on children (great way to gather Saturday laughs…hee hee!):
Six year old son playing with eight year old daughter and three year old son, “Get out or you are going to be unfriended!” Too much social media influence or just life as a blogger’s child???

3. Jr. was caught singing a song from my childhood, “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I’m going to eat some worms!” I tend to break out singing this song when our children get the “Woe is me” attitude or pout and say, “Nobody loves me!” I have forgotten many of the words to that song, so here’s my refresher:

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
I think I’ll go eat worms!
Big fat juicy ones,
Eensie weensy squeensy ones,
See how they wiggle and squirm!

Down goes the first one, down goes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm!
Up comes the first one, up comes the second one,
Oh how they wiggle and squirm!

I bite off the heads, and suck out the juice,
And throw the skins away!
Nobody knows how fat I grow,
On worms three times a day!

Nobody likes me, everybody hates me,
I think I’ll go eat worms!
Big fat juicy ones,
Eensie weensy squeensy ones,
See how they wiggle and squirm!

This song was originally posted at:

http://bussongs.com/songs/nobody-likes-me-worms.php

Here’s a video, but we didn’t sing it quite this fast!

2. Jr. says, “There’s ants on the table.”
Me: “Kill ‘em and eat ‘em.” (joking!)
Jr. very distressed facial expression: “Ewww.”
He continued to look worried, I told him I was just teasing and his face relaxed! Poor boy, I had him fooled! (to my amusement!)

1. The two younger boys were going through the clean laundry pile looking for clothes. Then Jr. came to us with one of his sister’s bras on! Silly boy! The girls said he came to them first and actually struck a pose to show them his new garment!

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Non-GMO Artisan Oils

Posted by html404 on July 25, 2014
in Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Organic, Reviews, Uncategorized

We try really hard to eat healthy, and as I always say, we are a work in progress. As organic farmers, I think the difficult part is walking our talk, which means avoiding GMO products as much as humanly possible when there are no labeling laws in the state of Illinois or much of the United States for that matter. Here is an interesting article that includes a map graphic of how many states have labeling, which ones are reviewing it and which ones have done nothing: http://onforb.es/1ls9AUE). Walking the organic talk also means eating organic, which we do but we are not at 100% yet.

We love learning about companies committed to offering us organic, Non-GMO products. That’s why I was interested in working with Emile Noel Non-GMO Artisan Oils.

About Emile Noel

Emile Noel is a family run business, started by Emile Noël in Southern France. Their website states, “The Emile Noël oil mill offers only organic products – farmed without chemical fertilizers, synthetic pesticides or GMOs. In 1972, we were the first oil millers in France to press organically-farmed seeds.”

Emile Noel Non-GMO Artisan Oils offers a variety of organic, virgin-pressed oils including: mild olive, robust olive, sesame, toasted sesame, sunflower oil, sunflower spray, pumpkin seed, hazelnut, walnut, and sweet almond.

Review of Emile Noel Non-GMO Artisan Oils

We were sent a bottle of Sweet Almond oil. I have never used almond oil so at first I was at a loss as to how to use it. Then I decided I would substitute it for the oil we usually cook with.

We made egg muffins and used the Sweet Almond oil to cook the eggs in:

There wasn’t any difference in how the oil cooked the eggs and I don’t think we noticed anything different about the taste of the eggs either.

However, when I made homemade bread we definitely tasted a slightly nutty flavor and I don’t know if it was the oil or perfect weather but the bread turned out great, if I do say so myself! I just made regular bread with unbleached white flour.

For not having used almond oil before, I’d say that it was a good experience and you can expect us to purchase it in the future. I mean what was there not to like about the Sweet Almond oil? Nothing. My only concern would be finding a large enough bottle. I used the whole bottle making these two items. We usually buy most oils in a gallon size. But that isn’t going to be most families dilemma is it?

Visit http://usa.emilenoel.com/oils/seed/ for more information on these tasty non-GMO artisan oils.

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Mickey Mouse Squish App Review

Posted by Brande on July 23, 2014
in Apps, Entertainment, Fun Stuff, Humor, Kids Stuff, Reviews, Technology/Electronics, Uncategorized

Mickey Mouse Squish App

This fantastic new Disney app is perfect for the child that loves to play with dough! Now they can squish and create on the go! Squish: Mickey Mouse Club House is the perfect app for you! It is available for an iPad or iPhone.

Mickey Mouse will greet you and walk your child through clay play and making options. Your child will have an option to pick a “clay” Mickey, Minnie, a ball, or square. There are also 8 color options to choose from. Once at the clay play station you can add different shapes to your squish mold, there are 5 different categories to choose from and each has approximately 8 clay shapes to choose from.

There is a texture tool as well as a scoop tool, this is an app that will let your child’s imagination soar! There is also an eraser button that looks like a magic wand. Your child can take a picture of their creations.
Once they are finished they can “melt” or “blow up” their creation and start a new one!

This is a great app for car rides and keeps them busy. It is recommended for child 4 and over. My daughter is 5 and just loves this app in the car.

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Week #28 Saturday Top Five Laughs

Posted by html404 on July 19, 2014
in Family Stuff, Fun Stuff, Humor, Saturday Top Five Laughs, Uncategorized

This week has been challenging on the technological front, as you may have noticed my blog was missing for a few days. Thanks to Hostgator we are back up running. So I decided to back post my Saturday Top Five Laughs since I kept a running list and have almost two weeks worth of material! Again, we join Mel over at The Mommyhood Chronicles for week #28 (for us) in our Saturday Top Five Laughs of the week.

5. The temperature was 70+ degrees and the children were playing in their 24″ tall kiddie pool. Our ten year old came to me saying, “Mommy, I think my feet are frost bitten!” Me, “No they are not.” Then he goes, “Then why are my toes tingling!” It was cold water from the hose….but it was a bit humorous initially.

4. One of our sons came to us one morning saying, “I fell asleep on the floor of my room and woke up on a bed of pillows I had made. I wondered how I got there but fell back to sleep. Then I woke up in the bathroom washing my hands in cold water!” Can you say sleep walker?

3. We finally got our kittens neutered and spayed – thanks to McHenry county for reduced neutering and spayed programs and to our friend for referring us! Anyhoo, Jr. was sad and didn’t understand going to the doctor (most of our vets come to the farm) so he said, “But me like Freckles.” Awww….he didn’t think Freckles was coming back so we had to explain to him that we would pick the kittens up at supper time. It seemed to help Jr. a bit anyways.

2. 14 year old to hubby, ” You have old man legs. My legs are ripe and full of life.” That cracked us both up!

1. The 14 year old also said that her butt glows in the sunlight. Everyone else’s is shriveled and dead. I have no idea where she came up with this stuff!

Until next time…

Feel free to share your funnies of the week with us!

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Whaley’s Big Adventure ~ Children’s Book Review

Posted by Professor on July 17, 2014
in Books, Reviews, Uncategorized

Join Whaley on his big adventure in the ocean as he meets Whales of all different sizes.

Written by 5 year old Alexander Luke and presented by his grandmother, award winning children’s author Carole P. Roman, this oceanic adventure of whale sized proportions will teach youngsters about the different whales that live in the oceans.

Our review:

This really is a unique book… in the fact that it was written AND illustrated by a 5 year old. We loved that the book was written for and by a child. The story is wonderful… Whaley is such a great character! We liked that the book not only gave Whaley and adventure but we learned about Whales along the way! What a great way to learn non-fiction facts in a fiction story!

For more information about the author or her books please visit www.carolproman.com

This book can be found on Amazon.com

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Beautiful Clematis – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by html404 on July 16, 2014
in Gardening, Home, Seasonal Stuff, Uncategorized

Beautiful Clematis

My photo does not do this Clematis justice but I still wanted to share it! This is a clematis at one of my paper customers. It makes me sad because when I transplanted mine last year from our townhouse to the house we are renting, it took a step backwards and is a puny little thing. Sniff. Sniff.