A Mama's Rant

NaBloPoMo '08 is over

Slightly worse for wear, I made it through NaBloPoMo ‘08. For the uninitiated, NaBloPoMo is  National Blog Posting Month, which started as a response to NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, a yearly November activity. NaBloPoMo goes on every month with a new theme, but I’ve only done it in November.

I posted here at A Mama’s Rant for 30 days straight. Most of the posts were good, and some were, shall I say, total filler. Gack! 

Since I have four blogs, three at which I post at fairly frequently, I believe I did a darn good job getting something out on a daily basis that was a little bit interesting or funny - including the duct tape post I managed to squeeze out while the kids waited in the car for me to drive them to karate.

Glad it’s over though I have so many reviews of products for the holiday shopping season that I’ll continue to blog almost every day for a few more weeks.

NaBloPoMo, see you next year!

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Pursuing your life's passion? Then share your TrueNorth story

Looking over this year, I gave thanks for all the things that blogging has given me. I started off as a marketing copywriter and found my passion in blogging about my life, parenting, cooking, health and diet, and children’s books, and teaching others about blogging. I have followed my passion, and success has followed.

Share your passion...at the Academy Awards

Frito-Lay's TrueNorth™ is inviting people to submit a story that describes how they (or someone they know) are pursuing their life's passion at www.truenorthsnacks.com/story. Frito-Lay is looking for the most extraordinary True North Story in America. Extraordinary doesn’t necessarily mean huge, and you don’t have to be Super Man saving the world on a daily basis. In fact, your True North story might only involve a few people doing wonderful things in your local community.

You could be doing something that leaves a legacy, empowers others, or simply makes the world a more interesting place to live. While every True North story is unique, Frito-Lay believes that each one has the power to inspire millions more.

A Merry Happy from the Obamas

I love how our president-elect gets social media, even back in 2007…

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

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Pet Pals: Animal Doctor comes to Wii

Legacy Interactive’s Pet Pals: Animal Doctor is available for the first time on Wii. (You can also play it on your PC or Mac.) This simulation game lets players feel like they are veterinarians diagnosing and treating hurt animals. 30 real life medical cases were created by real working veterinarians from actual field experience and contribute to the authenticity of the game play. Unlike the computer game, you can use a Wii controller to simulate real veterinary tools.

I mentioned to two young friends that I was reviewing Legacy Interactive’s Pet Pals: Animal Doctor on the Wii. They told me they enjoyed playing Majesco Sale’s Pet Pals: Animal Doctor game on their Nintendo DS, so I was looking forward to seeing a similar game.

Goldie’s Pet Pals: Animal Doctor review

Since we don’t have a Wii yet (it’s on our list for Santa) I went over to a friend’s home to have her daughter, Goldie – a Wii expert – try out the game.

Like most adults, 10-year-olds don’t read directions, so she popped the Pet Pals: Animal Doctor disk into the console and started playing. At first, I was bothered by the appearance of the hospital staff who looked like they had just left a military combat game. I would have preferred to see men and women in scrubs, just like at real vet hospitals. But Goldie didn’t seem to mind.

What are you thankful for this year?

It’s a few hours before we’re getting the turkey in the smoker and the three Thanksgiving crockpot recipes going. During this brief respite – I’ve been cooking since yesterday afternoon - I have time to share with you what I’m most thankful for this year.

Yes, there is family and there are friends to be thankful for - that goes without saying. I’m also thankful for my children’s wonderful teachers and school community and grateful that the current board and administration hasn’t messed up the original vision of the school founders – of which I am one – too much.

I’m thankful that Barack Obama was elected and that he’s bringing an awesome First Lady and two adorable kids with him to the White House. I see change as a good thing even though we’ll have to go through some difficult growing pains.

The economy from a mom's perspective

Since we’re on the verge of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, I thought I’d include some rather interesting findings from the TodaysMama.com 2008 Holiday Economic Survey.

• 85% of moms surveyed plan to curb their holiday spending this year. 14% plan to cut holiday spending by an astonishing 75%, 33% will cut spending by 50%, 23% will cut spending by 25%, and 15% will cut spending by 10%. Only 9% of respondents said they would not be cutting spending at all this year.

I told Nathan yesterday that even though everything is fine financially with our family, knock on wood,  his dad and I will be spending money fixing up the house this year rather than getting each other more stuff.

Now I just have to break the news to my husband. Honestly hun, do you need more hunting/fishing/bowling/golf gear? (I’m sure he’ll be emailing me this answer: “YES!”)

• 63% of moms indicated they would not be shopping on Black Friday this year.

I’m not participating. However, I’ve only shopped once on Black Friday and thought it was a waste of my time. I prefer shopping online or shopping sales throughout the year and hiding the presents.

• 89% of survey respondents plan to do at least some of their holiday shopping online this year.

Done, I hope, with enough time for Amazon to get everything to me in time.

Libman helps you mop up your messes

Enter my contest to win $100 of Weiman and Libman cleaning supplies. Click here to learn how!

I hate mopping because I hate most mops. I feel all you’re doing is pushing around the dirt and spreading it more evenly. So I use mops that you can change frequently (like the Swiffer kind, where you remove and toss the cleaning pad) or are easy to rinse. Even so, I find most mops don’t work as advertised.

The Wonder Mop

Always on the lookout for a better mop, I tried the Libman Wonder Mop. It’s very easy to use. You just rinse or dunk it to get wet, and you push the special wringer sleeve to remove excess water. Like their ads say, you never touch water.

When I first saw it, I didn’t think the octopus like strips would do a good job cleaning. But they did! Plus it was easy to walk over to the sink, and run warm water over the strips to rinse them. (You can remove it and clean it in the clothes washer.) I’m not very coordinated and have lousy hand strength. Even so, using the wringer sleeve was easy to do. Even an older person with arthritis in their hands could use this mop.

If you’re wondering where you can get a Libman Wonder Mop, go to their store locater. It looks like most supermarkets and discount chains carry them. And best of all, it’s made in the USA!

But why don’t you wait and enter my contest to Win $100 of Weiman and Libman Cleaning Products instead?

(A Family Review Network review.)

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Getting the house clean for the holidays with Weiman cleaning products

Enter my contest to win $100 of Weiman and Libman cleaning supplies. Click here to learn how!

Planning this year’s healthy Thanksgiving menu is taking more time than I thought, which is cutting down my house cleaning. Luckily, I’ve discovered a few new cleaning products from Weiman that will help.

Weiman traitional and green cleaning products

Weiman carries a variety of traditional cleaning products for everything from wooden cabinets to jewelry. I tried Weiman’s E-tronic Wipes since I’m always scared of accidentally frying my electronics by spraying too much glass cleaner on them.

E-tronic Wipes repel dust and eliminate static from electronic equipment with their ammonia-free formula. I tried the wipes on two TVs, 2 DVD players, the satellite receiver, a laptop computer, two telephone hand sets, and my PC keyboard and screen. I even tried it on the clock faces of my oven and microwave. And I did this with only TWO wipes.

The wipes feel rather dry, but they work on a lot of surfaces before getting too dirty to use. I’ll be keeping a canister by my desk for sure.

Win $100 of Cleaning supplies from Weiman and Libman

Can you stand another giveaway? This one is for $100 worth of cleaning supplies from Weiman and Libman, who makes the Wonder Mop.

I recently had a chance to try out several Weiman and Libman products through the Family Review Network, and believe me, you’ll want to try them, too.

If you have more cleaning supplies than you need, this would make a nice gift for newlywed couple, a young person who just moved to his or her first place, or a teacher. (Most teachers I know are constantly cleaning their classrooms.) Or you can donate it to a family in need or a food bank that takes household cleaning supplies.

You have from now until midnight MT on December 3, 2008 to enter.

The truth about duct tape

Duct tape is like the Force.

It has a light side and a dark side.

And it holds the universe together.

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