Vitafam Tested (Reviews)

A Berkey Water Filter Review – For Water Purists Like Me

May 22, 2013 by LoraLynn

I’m a heavy drinker.

Of water.

I am legen… wait for it… dary for requiring copious amounts of water and spilling it frequently. Especially when I’m pregnant. I remember being in the hospital pregnant with the twins in pre-term labor. I was all hopped up on morphine and magnesium but still insisted that I have a full cup of water with a straw on hand at all times.

Then I would fall asleep with it in the crook of my arm until it spilled all over me and my bed. The nurses just adored coming every few hours to change the sheets of a woman incapable of standing on her own two feet or holding her water.

Heh. Pun not intended but definitely true.

About a year ago, Andrew made a purchase that revolutionized the water drinking in our home. He bought a Berkey. He actually made his decision out of a sudden realization that if we were ever to lose power or water for a few days, the odds were very small that someone would take in our family of nine and share their resources with us.

The Berkey is known for being able to filter anything and everything out of water. So if we needed to, we could filter pond or creek water. I shrugged my shoulders and encouraged him to buy what he thought we needed. When he got it all set up, we decided to put it to the test. We put some red food coloring in the top water and waited for it to filter through.

Sure enough, when it reached the bottom of the Berkey, the water was completely clear and tasty.

And that’s the other thing, the Berkey water is DE-LISH. I know it’s hard to imagine water having much taste, but you can actually smell the difference before you even drink it. Hold some tap water up to your nose, inhale the chlorine and fluoride. Hold some Berkey water up to your nose, smell… nothing.

Now take a sip of the tap water. Fine. It’s water. But once you sip the Berkey water, you realize the tap water actually burned your throat a little as it went down while the Berkey water is almost sweet and slips smoothly down your throat.

I know it sounds like I’m being dramatic but I’ve watched Andrew make himself drink water for years. He doesn’t really like it. He’ll sip it slowly and then forget it on the counter. But since we bought the Berkey, he can guzzle an entire glassful in minutes. Often.

The whole family can taste the difference. The kids declared it “yummy” and also enjoy being able to fill their own water bottles. I’ve become a bit of a princess about my water and no longer drink it bottled or from the tap at all. When we go on a trip, the first thing Andrew and I do when we get home is guzzle a tall glass of water from the Berkey and sigh in relief.

And since I’m displaying how spoiled we are, I’ll also tell you that we use Berkey filtered water for our espresso maker and can definitely tell a difference. We don’t need to descale the machine as often if we use good filtered water. This is a plus, since we can’t go three hours without Sweet Precious in operation.

A Berkey was a bit of an investment, but the filters last at least a really long time (think YEARS), and when you add up how much you spend changing out other water filters every three months, it doesn’t seem quite so bad. Plus, it’s nice to know we’ve got a back-up plan for clean water that will work no matter what happens.

For a “heavy drinker” like myself, that’s some good peace of mind.

Do you filter your water? Anybody got a fancy reverse osmosis system? A Brita? An old-fashioned strainer?

Filed Under: Food, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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Booty Shaking Not Guaranteed, But Likely – A Review of The Writer’s Jungle

April 10, 2013 by LoraLynn

You all know how I love to Use My Words. Often with little to no regard for your exhausted eyeballs.

So it’s fair to say I wasn’t too worried about teaching my kids writing. I would simply teach them to type, open up a WordPress platform, and say, “Go therefore and Blog.”

But, um, it didn’t work that way. Matter of fact, most of my progeny are still struggling with the whole “push your pencil across the paper” phenomenon. Whatever “methods” I was using, they weren’t working.

So in January, after reading the content on BraveWriter and reading the book The Writer’s Jungle (by the same author), we took a different tactic.

And y’all? I am drinking the Brave Writer Kool-Aid.

I give a more thorough review over at Simple Homeschool today, but if you need further proof, look at this:

That’s my Sam. We edited his story about his favorite toy “Kitty” using the Brave Writer method of cutting up each sentence and moving it around to create a more orderly piece. And do you see my kid? HE’S SMILING.

That’s because he liked editing. Matter of fact, he’s a natural. As I read his story aloud, he would wave his arms at me to stop and then say, “No, that doesn’t sound right, Mommy. We need to change the words so it makes more sense. And I think we need to move this sentence over here…”

Now (if it doesn’t singe your retinas) picture me booty-shaking around the kitchen with glee. Because that’s totally what I did after this writing session.

And see these six happy yahoos?

We finished a Friday freewrite session and I treated them all to a proper British tea while we read our pieces aloud. They got cookies, I got to sit still for a minute and listen to the thoughts inside the heads of my people.

A beautiful way to end our week.

Even if they did insist on dropping their cookies in their tea and then complained when their beverage was undrinkable.

And finally, this… this Magnum Opus from my kindergartener:

This made me laugh out loud. I will treasure it always. And I’m convinced she’s destined for greatness…

I love that writing is fun again in our house… for everyone. I love that by teaching my kids to write or tell me stories, I’m getting access into their brains and finding out what they think about. I’m learning their inner voice. And they’re learning to relate to me over their words.

Highly recommend this book to writers of all forms and fashion, homeschooler or not. And even if you don’t use it to teach your kids writing, give it a read for inspiration and encouragement.

You won’t regret it at all.

Unlike that mental image of me dancing in my kitchen….

Filed Under: Homeschooling, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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Essential Oils – What I Know So Far

March 25, 2013 by LoraLynn

I love a good smell. Baby heads, the scent of jasmine coming up in my yard, lilies… These conjure up happy memories for me.

And it’s no secret that I have a history with essential oils. Remember those yummy kid-safe cleaners I used to sell?

I’m picky about good smells.

But can I admit to spending a long time befuddled by the idea that you can use essential oils for health purposes? I even read a book that had CHEMISTRY in it to try and grasp WHY people claimed X oil would heal X ailment.

I didn’t exactly understand the book, but I read it.

I read all the arguments about whether or not its safe to ingest essential oils and what constitutes “therapeutic grade” or high quality oils. I read about the great divide between the two companies that claim to sell these therapeutic grade oils. But I couldn’t be convinced one way or the other until I tried for myself.

I dabbled my toe in the water when Finn was born. I knew I would struggle with maintaining my milk supply and I was willing to try anything. So in addition to my Goat’s Rue herbal tincture, I purchased a bottle of Fennel oil. I took it every day in a teaspoon of honey.

And clearly, Finn and I did just fine.

It was another year before I bit the bullet and decided to add several oils to our family medicine kit. I chose Doterra brand. Mostly because they smell fantastic.

So let’s start there. I’ve smelled essential oils for years and thought I was buying pretty good quality stuff. And then I opened a bottle of Doterra…

To compare, I took my decent quality Lemon oil that I use in my cleaning supplies. I sniffed it and then the Doterra Lemon. The first was like dirt compared to the sweet essence of lemon that came out of that Doterra bottle.

The same is true for every other oil I’ve compared. I’ve got a huge bottle of “decent” tea tree oil sitting in my bathroom that I used regularly. I can’t stand to even open it now, the smell nauseates me. Instead, I prefer Doterra’s version, which is cleaner, much more “plant-ish.”

But Doterra oils are kinda pricey, I admit. So they needed to actually work before I would admit to any of you here on the blog that I use them.

I’ve been trying them out for four months now. I haven’t got it all figured out. But I know that I’m still buying them, I use them every day, and I love them.

Here’s why:

1 – They don’t do any harm. I’ve got a book that I can look up any ailment and hunt down an oil to try it on. There aren’t any side effects, no adverse reactions to worry about. If it works, great. But if it doesn’t…

2 – My kids like to have me try.

There are two parts to this. First, so many times as mamas, our kids just want us to DO SOMETHING about their ailment. These oils are a safe option. I don’t have to worry about overdosing them or giving them medicine for something that doesn’t need medicine.

Second, there’s something in a mama’s touch that is medicinal. Applying these oils gives me a moment to look my children in the eye and touch them.

They really like that.

Matter of fact, they ASK for oils before anything else.

This isn’t posed. While I was typing, she brought me the box and asked for some oil on her tummy.

3 – I have actually strengthened my relationship with my kids with essential oils.

I learned how to do Aromatouch technique, which is an orderly way to apply a certain set of oils that boosts the immune system and makes a person feel really, really good. I figured out I can lay my kids across my lap to do it, no massage table required.

I rub yummy smells on their back and they talk to me. Magic.

My kids fight over whose turn it is to get their back rubbed. When I’m feeling disconnected from a child or I think they need a little extra attention, this is the tactic I use. It’s a great way to minister to anybody you love and it’s super easy to learn.

4 – Essential oils work. Sometimes they work better than others, but here are my favorite oils (so far):

OnGuard – I diffuse this when we’re all gathered in a room or have company coming. It’s an immune booster and germ killer. And it smells like Christmas.

PastTense – This is an anti-headache medicine that I carry with me at all times. Works like a charm on tension headaches.

Melaleuca – (or tea tree oil) I use this one the most. It’s very helpful in clearing up infection. I’ve taken care of my own ear infections this way and several of the kids. Rather than diluting it in oil, I just put a drop on my finger and swirl it around inside the ear. The other week when I had a bad infection, rubbing melaleuca directly on my lymphnodes was especially soothing and helpful. It also works well in a vinegar bath to clear up diaper rash or yeast infections… There’s an entire blog post worth of uses for this oil. Just trust me. It’s good.

DigestZen – I’ve got one child who often complains of an upset tummy. I haven’t figured out the source of her discomfort yet, but a little of this rubbed around her belly and she’s happy once again. I use it regularly for myself and find it’s just as soothing as a cup of ginger mint tea but so much faster.

Balance – Rub it on your wrists when you think you’re gonna lose your mind. You won’t.

Wild Orange – Sweet mercy, this one just smells yummy. If my kids give me that difficult-to-diagnose “I just don’t feel good,” I’ll rub this on their feet to perk them up. It’s one of their favorites.

AromaTouch – I use this for my big migraines that start down in my neck. Andrew tried it once and it worked right away on him, too. This one smells like beach in a bottle to me.

Peppermint – Works great for nausea.

Breathe – With our recent colds, I would rub this right into my lymphnodes and I’d be able to breathe for a bit. I also diffused it in a bedroom just before sleepy time to make breathing easier.

My diffuser. I can control the interval and strength of diffusion.

There’s still a lot I don’t know or understand. And I haven’t quite got the knack of applying oils enough times to shorten the flu or end all allergies. Currently, I would say that the oils are safe way to manage all the symptoms we have even if they can’t cure what ails us.

But I’ve seen the oils work well enough that I’m willing to keep trying for cures in the future. I’ll keep you posted.

Do you HAVE to buy Doterra brand oils? Nope. You don’t. I do think they’re the best available and worth the expense, but I don’t think other brands are ineffective.

One word of caution: unless you absolutely trust the source of your oils, you’ll need to dilute the oils before using them on your kids. Just add coconut oil when applying to the skin. This will dilute the effectiveness some, but it will guarantee they don’t get a rash from sub-par oils. (A perk of Doterra is that I don’t usually have to dilute them so my kids are getting a stronger more effective dose.)

And Mamas? We need to touch our kids more. I can still remember exactly how it felt to have my mother’s cool hand on my forehead or rubbing my back when I was sick. I’ll bet you can remember, too. Using essential oils on my kids has reminded me how important it is to actually lay hands on my children throughout the day and give them that soothing touch that only Mommy can.

Even if Doterra isn’t in your budget, get you some decent essential oils and some coconut oil and spend some time rubbing your babies’ feet. It will be time well spent and something you’ll both remember for always.

And you’ll smell fantastic, too.

*Affiliate Alert* I signed up with Doterra to get the wholesale prices and then happily discovered they were worth sharing with all of you. I’m glad to talk about them all day but I’m not out to sell anybody anything and nobody is paying me to write this so no need to feel awkward. Also: I wish you were all at my house so you could smell the yummy oils…

Filed Under: Essential Oils, This Is How We Do It, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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Curls For Little Girls – A Tutorial

October 7, 2012 by LoraLynn

People often comment on my girls’ hair and say, “Oh, I wish my daughter had hair like that!” or “I wish I had hair like that!”

Here’s a secret: it’s very possible to bring out the natural curl in almost anybody’s hair.

When I was little, I had some wayward waves and a few cowlicks that we tried to hide in my Dorothy Hamill haircut. I wish someone had known how to baby my curls a little bit and give them the care they needed. Once I finally embraced my curly side as an adult, I’ve learned that curls are much more low maintenance than you think, even on little girls.

You don’t have to wash curly hair as often.
Curls are very forgiving style-wise. Give ‘em a little fluff, maybe spray them with some watered-down conditioner and they look lovely. They are perfectly imperfect.
Less hair-brushing required.

I began coaxing the wave into my girls’ hair just as soon as I saw the first “flip” up of a tuft of baby hair. I immediately switched to baby conditioner ONLY. This is key. Curls need moisture. Otherwise they’re shy. So we have a strict NO SHAMPOO policy around here for all of our ladies.

Over time, the more moisture those baby waves received, the curlier they became. And slowly, through some years of growing and moisturizing, we turned cowlicks into sweet little girl curls.

Now, I’m not guaranteeing you a head full of curls, but I am encouraging you to give this a try if you’ve seen the slightest hint of a wave in your little girl’s hair. You might be surprised at the results.

(An Aside: We follow a similar procedure for Mira’s 4a curls, but I am not ready to claim any sort of authority on that yet. The same rules apply: Moisture, moisture, moisture!)

Since you don’t really brush curly hair unless it’s lathered up with conditioner, it can get tangly. Especially if you’re like me and wait a long time between hair washings because, quite frankly, life is busy. And curly hair in a pony tail is cute no matter how dirty it is.

My best friend for in-between washings (to freshen curls, just spray it on and go) and to pre-treat tangles is this:

You can achieve the same effect by just adding water to conditioner and putting it in a spray bottle. Make sure the finished mixture feels slippery on your fingers. You want it to create the slip on the curls. Too watery and it will just be… wet.

On washing days, I spray this on any especially gnarly little tangles while the hair is dry and then throw all the girls in the shower.

We wet the hair thoroughly and then I add a round of conditioner. You want to condition the hair first so the hair has as long as possible to soak up the moisture. I started with this much conditioner for Willa, but quickly added a bit more. Her hair is short and thinner.

Ellen needed about twice this. Take that conditioner and try and coat all of the hair from root to tip. Focus especially on the worst knots. But you want the whole thing to be covered in conditioner.

With Willa’s thinner hair, the conditioner is already on the scalp and I just scrub that around all over with my finger tips to make sure her scalp gets nicely cleaned. (There’s plenty of surfectant/soap in conditioner to clean the hair without drying it out like shampoo.) Ellen’s hair is thicker and I had to put another batch of conditioner in my hand and then add it to her scalp in sections, lifting the hair scrubbing her scalp.

The key is that the original coating of conditioner means you can actually find the scalp to scrub it. If you just condition the ends of the hair without getting to the scalp, you don’t moisturize the hair that’s growing and it will continue to stay dry and not as curly.

Now that the scrubbing is over, just leave the conditioner to soak into the hair until the very end of the shower or bath. My favorite tool for tackling the tough tangles is this:

To brush out the hair, start at the tips with your wide-tooth comb or tangle teezer. Brush small sections in small strokes and as you work the tangles out, work your way up the hair to the root. Because you’ve got the hair nice and slimy, you can do this fairly quickly in un-tangled spots and you won’t damage the hair follicle as you comb. Curly hair should never be brushed without moisture on it or you will damage the hair and damage your curl.

Now onto the tangles…

I tell my girls I found a rat’s nest in their hair and I need to work on it. Then I grab the gnarly section and set to work.

You follow the same basic procedure as before, work from the tip up to the root. Ellen is especially tender-headed, so I try to grab the hair firmly in front of the root as I pull the tangle out to protect her scalp.

She’s convinced she saw the shadow of the rat run out of her hair in the shower tonight. And I’m content to let her believe it if it means she’ll let me get the “nest” out.

When you’re done, the strands will be shiny and happy.

After the girls have soaped up, we rinse their hair at the very end. I don’t rub their hair dry with the towel. I only use the towel to gently lift the curls and soak up the drips. I lay the towel over their head and press down firmly. Then I put a little bit of gel in my hands. For Willa, it’s this much:

And this much for Ellen:

I smear the gel around in my hands and then grab the hair at the bottom and push up with my palms as I scrunch with my fingertips.

Just takes a few seconds and then you’re done. Let it air dry (you can use a diffuser if you must, but honestly, it’s better to just bundle them up in warm jammies if they’re cold and avoid the blow dryer.)

Best case scenario, at night you would put it up high on the head in a scrunchee (normal pony tail holders will damage the follicle) and let them sleep on a satin pillowcase. That doesn’t really happen in my house but if you can swing it, you should.

It takes time to get hair moisturized properly and get those curls to form. You may not see quick results. But if you stick with it, in a few weeks, you’ll notice a difference. And the results are super cute, don’t you think?

This is her beach hair, unwashed for days, in and out of the ocean and the pool. See? LOW MAINTENANCE!!

Got any more curly girl tips for me? Leave ‘em in the comments!

And don’t forget to link up with the Parent’hood, too!

Filed Under: My Hair Is The Real Star, This Is How We Do It, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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Nissan NV 3500 12 Passenger Review – What A Big Family Thinks

May 24, 2012 by LoraLynn

If you’re in the market for a new van, start with this explanation of why we got rid of our Sprinter.

An update to our review can be found here.

We’ve been a Nissan family since our pre-marriage days, when Andrew sported around in a five-speed Maxima. It was very hard to let go of our Quest when we needed more room. That’s why we were really excited to test drive the Nissan NV 3500 as soon as it came out. It did not disappoint. And it went home with us that very day.

The van is eye-catching without being an eyesore. When we rode around town in our Sprinter, we couldn’t help but be noticed as we roared into the parking lot. With the NV we stand out, but it has less to do with looking like the FedEx truck and more to do with driving a spiffy-looking van that no one has seen before.

To me, the van looks like the Nissan Titan truck and the Nissan Cube had a gigantic baby. The front of the van looks like a Titan. The back is more like a box. I feel like I’m driving an extra large SUV rather than a van. And what red-blooded American can’t appreciate a good SUV?

One of the first things we noticed about the van was how quiet it was. Now, we were coming from a Sprinter, where we sat on top of the engine, so just about anything would seem quieter. But when you’ve got a bunch of people in the car, it’s important to be able to hear each other. Driving in the car is part of “family togetherness” but it’s useless if we can’t understand what anyone has to say. In the NV, as long as the music isn’t turned up too loud, I can hear the requests/demands/complaints/jokes/stories from the child in the very back seat.

Speaking of seats, there are a lot of seating options. Nissan claims there are 324 ways to configure the seats. It took Andrew and I two hours of pondering to figure out the best way to arrange our people, so, yea, there are several choices. The reason for this is that all three back rows have split seating and each section of seats can be removed. And the first back row can actually face backwards if you feel so inspired.

It’s like the Baskin Robbins’ 31 Flavors of the transportation world.

We chose to remove one of the seats to create a sort of aisle for the kids to get to their spot. When we take big trips, we’ll move everyone around a bit so that we can remove half of the very back seat for cargo storage. The good news is: even if we remove seats for cargo, we will still have an extra seat to take a helper with us wherever we go. Hooray!

Cargo space… We gave up some cargo space when we sold our Sprinter. But we have more cargo space than some of the Chevy Express vans I’ve been in. And the option to remove part of the back seat means we have much more flexibility to haul all our stuff. We can also put a trailer hitch on the back and use one of those back end attachments for more trunk space. The fact that I can get my double stroller in the back of the van means the cargo space is definitely adequate.

Here’s a list of the other things we like:

Good driving experience. It feels really wide when you get behind the wheel. And it is. But you quickly realize you will fit between the parking space lines and you don’t have to swing as wide as you think you do. It’s like driving a truck, not a top-heavy van.
Comfort in the front seat. A non-contraction-inducing ride for the grown-ups and lots of room. Lovely. Plus, we can hear each other now, so it’s like a date!
Great mirrors. With the headrests and such, you can’t really see out the back but you don’t need to because Nissan put big and small sideview mirrors in all the right places. I can see everything I need to for safe driving.
Lots of storage in the front. We haven’t tried, but I’m pretty sure we could store baby Finn in the center console. It was designed to hold a laptop and hanging file folders… or small children, apparently.
Power, power, everywhere! There’s a plug-in outlet on every row to accommodate our geeky selves with our laptops and iPads. There are even two 120-volt plugs that you can plug things directly into.
Shoulder belts and headrests for all twelve passengers. This has never been available in a van before to those of us who exceed the mini-vans. This is HUGE. The headrests are removable if you prefer.
Side air-bags all the way to the back. Good for our insurance. Even better for our kids.
The side door can be opened by the kids. There’s no fancy button that opens and closes it, but the door glides easily enough that my eight year olds can handle it.
Rear sonar. It helps to have some notice if there’s something behind me.
The back doors swing all the way open and then magnetize to the side of the van so no one will get hit by the doors. When we’re packing our van for a long trip, it’s nice to know we don’t have to worry about somebody getting the back door slammed on them while we’re trying to decide where to put the sleeping bags.

Things that gave us pause:

Driver’s side headrest. We had this problem in our Quest, too. The front seat headrests pitch your head forward, which can be awkward on a long drive. I asked our dealership about it and they said it’s considered a safety feature, so it can’t be changed. However, adjusting the tilt of the driver’s seat seemed to help. It would be nice if Nissan would add just one more “click” so the headrest can go just a tick higher to accommodate my hubby’s handsome head.
We got the V6 engine and coming from having a turbo diesel engine that literally ROARED, the V6 took some time to get used to. Even though I have to press harder to get the van to respond in a hurry, the van WILL respond and I have the power when I need it. In terms of gas mileage, we’re satisfied with about 15-18 mpg, and we live in a town with lots of hills. If we got the V8 we’d just spend more on gas so the V6 was the right choice for us.
The back row seats are definitely narrow. Any vehicle that holds twelve people will have narrow seats. For those of you with lots of carseats, you’ll probably still only be able to get three carseats in that back row of four seats, unless you have all Radian carseats. However, the foot room on that very back row is excellent. Andrew and I can sit back there comfortably. The van definitely feels very roomy and Nissan made the most of the space.

Bottom Line: The Nissan NV 3500 is a great option for families. And I don’t think you have to be a family of “unusually large size” to like it. If we took out the back row of seats, we’d have a great eight passenger SUV type vehicle with more cargo space than any mini-van ever dreamed of having. We trust the Nissan brand to get us where we need to go for many years. And the incredible seating flexibility means that we’ve got options, no matter what our family looks like.

************

If you’re still with me after all of those words I can only assume you’re really interested in the Nissan. So I must tell you about the dealership where we bought our van. If you’re located in the southeastern region of the US, listen up!

There are only three dealerships in Alablama that carry this van. I called all three. Only ONE consistently returned my calls and emails: Larry Richardson of Landers/McLarty Nissan. He met us halfway between our cities with the van so we could test drive it. And then he deftly handled our crew for the many hours we took at the dealership signing paperwork. Andrew actually left the dealership smiling and my husband LOATHES the car buying process.

Even though there are dozens of dealerships closer to us, we will definitely call Larry again when our small car needs to be replaced because our experience with him was THAT good.

And if you call Larry (256-837-5753 ext. 315), make sure you tell him the Vitafam sent you. I want him to know that all his efforts with us were worthwhile!

*Nobody paid me or gave me a free car for this review. They should have, but they didn’t.

Filed Under: The Family Van, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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Best Twirly Dress Ever – A Giveaway

April 2, 2012 by LoraLynn

A month or so ago, I answered some questions about the Vitafam for the Cheeky Bums Blog. It was the most fun I’ve had writing in a while, Kelsi asked some fantastic questions. But not only are the Cheeky Bums gals great writers, they also have a super cute market.

So when they offered to send me one of their new spring dresses to try, I knew before it hit my mailbox that I’d be happy with it. These ladies appreciate quality. I mean, they interviewed ME, right? *maniacal laugh inserted here*

Mira was the lucky recipient of this dress. She was very pleased. “Ohhhh, pwett-ee!”

I will admit, Mira isn’t exactly the most cooperative model. She wouldn’t really stand still because she was more interested in showing me how she could twirl in her dress.

But that makes a pretty good sales pitch right there, don’t you think?

Mira’s dress is a 2T, which is a perfect fit for her now. When the length gets too short, it will easily last another season or more as a tunic dress. And the stitching looks superb, so I’m positive it will hold up to my less than stellar laundry skills.

I love the bright colors and those three little buttons on the front are a perfect touch.

The best news of all is that Cheeky Bums Market wants to share the love with one of you. You can win a $30 gift certificate (so you can pick out your own dress or any other item equal in value from their shop.)

Leave a comment here telling me about YOUR favorite childhood dress (or t-shirt if the men want to play). Mine was an Easter dress Meme made for me when I was 8. It was country blue with little pink flowers and had a great skirt for twirling. I wore it as a dress-up outfit for years after I technically outgrew it.

I’ll give you an extra entry if you go and “like” Vitafamiliae on Facebook.

And one MORE entry if you “like” Cheeky Bums Market on Facebook.

*Leave me one comment per method, okay?

I’ll close comments on Friday and pick a winner. Good luck!

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED*******

Filed Under: Family Pictures, Sponsor Love, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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A Groundhog’s Day Gift List

February 1, 2012 by LoraLynn

So it’s Groundhog’s Day. A day of love, romance and flowers, chocolate… Oh, wait. You mean that’s Valentine’s Day?

Please.

Around here, we’re all about the Groundhogs. We celebrate the Ro-mance in Ro-dent. We swoon for woodchucks. The Day of Whistle-pigs is spent with hearts aflutter…

Okay, the truth is, Andrew and I got engaged on Groundhog’s Day. And since it was purely accidental (the date, not the engagement) but highly convenient, we always make note of the day with a giggle.

Remind me to tell you our engagement story some day. It is so NOT exciting, considering it begins with “Well, it was Groundhog’s Day…”

Anyway, in honor of the day, and in anticipation of that day the rest of you like to celebrate with cards and hearts, I thought I’d point out to you one of this month’s sponsors. I’ve mentioned Cheeky Maiden Soap a time or thirty, but I can assure you that Cheeky’s products should be TOP of your list for a gift to the one who makes your toes tingle.

Men, this would be the part you should pay attention to.

Cheeky Maiden bath bombs make a sweet little gift, they smell fantastic, and they’re THE only lovely fragrance-y thing I can stand to put in a tub and soak in. All other fragranced items made by others would make my skin turn Valentine Red and itchy. But every Cheeky product is so natural, and yet so yummy, that my skin stays happy.

My favorite scent of the bath bombs is Her Royal Highness. I can’t imagine why…

If you’re a bit of a scrooge when it comes to gift-giving or Valentine’s Day, I have a more practical suggestion: shea butter moisturizers, in every scent and variation. For my own skin, I use the whipped shea butter.

For Mira’s skin, I use the unrefined shea butter. It’s unscented, and some moms I know don’t like the smell of straight shea butter, but the “raw” smell doesn’t stay on Mira’s skin. Instead, her skin is soft and smells like… her. (And maybe bananas, depending on her snack time choices.) I feel better knowing it’s the purest thing I can put on Mira’s skin. And it really works the best of everything else I’ve tried.

So,go get shopping in honor of Ye Honored Groundhog, Valentine’s Day, or the Engagement That Began The Vitafam. Your choice…

*I buy loads of Cheeky Maiden products by my own volition. The opinions expressed herein are completely my own.

Photo courtesy of Allison Lewis Photography.

Filed Under: Family Stories, Sponsor Love, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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The Vitafam’s Favorite Apps for the iPad

January 8, 2012 by LoraLynn

After Christmas, I got several emails and facebook messages from friends who received an iPad as a gift and wanted to know some good apps to load. I decided I’d share my answers with all of you, just in case you’re on the hunt for some new apps. I am not suggesting that all of these are worth every penny, but these are the ones that get the most use in our home. Enjoy!

Education:

This was the link I started with when we bought our iPad. Pick a category or subject from the top of the page and start browsing!

Stack the states

Stack the Countries

Presidents vs. Aliens

Ansel and Claire’s Adventure in Africa

Discovery Kids Sharks App

Art Authority – Warning: My kids are not allowed to open this app. It’s fantastic for teaching art history, but those crazy Renaissance artists require a lot of censoring!

MathBoard

Spellboard

3D Brain – My kids aren’t really big enough to understand this, but Ian likes to poke around on it sometimes. I think it’s pretty neat.

History: Maps of the World – So handy as we work our way through the history of the world.

Games For Kids:

Bubbles – I can’t find a link to a website for this app, but it has been a favorite of my Littles. The maker is Hog Bay Software.

Phony Phone – for babies

Angelina Bubble Pop – Ellen’s favorite

Preschool Adventure – One of the first apps I bought for my iphone and it still gets lots of use.

Moo Baa La La La App – An interactive version of one of our favorite books.

Cookie Doodle – This is a favorite of my littles, but all my children will play it.

Drums! – Also, no link, but if you search for it with the exclamation point, you’ll find it on iTunes. We have lots of drummer wanna-bes in our house and this is a quiet way to handle them.

Traffic Rush – This game makes my blood pressure soar but the kids enjoy crashing the cars into each other.

Oregon Trail – Fun for all. I use it as a ploy to make my little brothers like me. I’m pretty cool when I show up with a fully charged phone and let them play Oregon Trail. Further proof I am not above bribery for affection…

Angelina Ballerina – A girly favorite.

Flight of the Hamsters – This is ridiculous. And funny.

I Spy Riddle Race

Ragdoll Blaster – Another one that I find infuriating. However, Andrew assures me there’s physics and logic involved (both of which I have never excelled at) so I pretend it’s educational for the kids.

Topple – Tetris but with more interesting faces.

Flight Control – My older kids like to play this. We have grown-up friends who like it, too, and play it when they come over.

Friendsheep – We have the free version of this. It makes me laugh. Sheep are always funny, right?

Toontastic – Kids can make cartoon videos. This is an app that I don’t think is that exciting but they find it hilarious.

Pictureka – This is actually pretty tricky. Andrew and I have played and we get frustrated with it. But the kids have beat the whole thing. They’ve got mad skillz.

For Big Kids and Grown-Ups:

Ticket to Ride – Andrew and I have played the board game version of this for years and I can’t recommend it enough. We LOVE having it on the iPad because now we don’t have the pieces to fool with and we can play with two players. They also allow you to play each other wirelessly, so we can each have an iPad. But it’s more fun to cuddle and just pass the iPad back and forth in a shared game.

Settlers of Catan – This is an app that saves us the hassle of playing with the board game and all the pieces. We can also play bots so we don’t need more people. I don’t think it’s as intuitive to play on the iPad if you’ve never played it before, but I’ve never LOVED this game as much as others.

Medici – A bidding type game that we pass back and forth between us to play. I would never play this on a board because of all the pieces, but I will play the app. We enjoy it. We’ve played it a few times in the ER this pregnancy. Andrew always wins. I can’t imagine why…

ESV Study Bible – Worth every penny.

W.O.R.D. Welder – I don’t think I’m really smart enough for this game, but it’s my current word game fave.

White Noise – A must for when we travel. We plug the iPad into the wall and let it run all night.

Andrew’s Picks:

Andrew has his own iPad that he won at work. These are his favorites:

Reeder – Keeps up with your RSS feed.

Notetaker HD – He tried several before settling on this to do his lists and notes.

Dropbox – He put our PDF of the Jesse Tree book on this so he could read by the light of his iPad at the table over candlelight.

Filed Under: Homeschooling, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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Pregnancy Survival Kit (for High Maintenance Mamas)

December 5, 2011 by LoraLynn

I’m in bed tonight resting a cranky Eunice instead of at a party with friends. I’m missing out on brownies. This makes me sad. So I thought I’d give you a list of things that make this quasi-bed resting/pregnancy easier. You can give them to low maintenance Mamas and Women You Love, too. We just all know which end of the spectrum I fall on.

Cheeky Maiden Products – Since I had three different Cheeky Maiden items on my list, I decided to combine them, lest I sound like a paid advertisement. (I’m not saying the Maiden didn’t throw a few extra bath bombs in my last order, but she didn’t ask me for any publicity. She’s just nice.)

I’m always a loyal user of Cheeky’s Whipped Shea Butter. Due to genetics, my skin is dry when I’m not pregnant. Add in pregnancy hormones and medication? It’s like the Sahara. This stuff spreads quickly and keeps me feeling non-itchy.

Side note: My morning lotion habits have lately started to feel like smearing butter on a long-legged turkey. I’m worried about my pop-up timer being too obvious…

For the baby belly, I’m hooked on the Mango Mamma Belly Butter. It’s got that little something extra that makes me feel I’m really FIGHTING those stretch marks. It may be wishful thinking on my part, but whatever helps. My favorite trick for the Belly Butter: put a few dollops in my bath water and I come out feeling smooth as a baby’s butt.

And when morale gets low? I’ll take any flavor of Bath Bomb. Oh, these just make me happy. And Cheeky Maiden’s are the best. They smell fantastic and they don’t make me feel creepy and weirdly fragranced.

Epsom Salts – I know it seems I only talk about bath tubs these days, but I am spending A LOT of quality time in the tub. When my muscles get tired or Eunice gets cranky, the first place I head is my tub. I dump about 3 or 4 cups of Epsom Salts in it and I soak. Epsom salts are just magnesium that your muscles can absorb. It really helps… so much that I sometimes take two baths a day. (Hence, the Belly Butter in the water keeps me from shriveling up.)

We buy big bags of it in bulk. Seriously. But we don’t use it for that last purpose mentioned on the bag. Ever.

York Peppermint Patties – When I’m pregnant with boys, I need mint. And chocolate. Together. The amount of York wrappers on the floor by my bed is astonishing.

A Belly Band – I really hate this, but I’ve finally become one of THOSE pregnant women who needs a belt. That’s part of the reason for all the medicine and hospital drama: my muscles are just plain worn out. So I started with this bad boy, which is hideous, but definitely effective. Kept my back from hurting at all. And didn’t show through my clothes as much as you think it would.

My real problem was more about my belly muscles, and this belt seemed to put pressure just where my contractions would come from. I ordered several different kinds of contraptions and tried them all, but in the end, the every day Belly Band worked best (you know, the kind you get to make your favorite pre-pregnancy jeans last longer when they don’t button any more.) I double up two belly bands and it’s sort of like wearing Spanx for my tummy. I think the one from Pea in a Pod is stronger than all the others.

I’m not saying there aren’t moments when I run to my closet and rip the bands off because I feel like I’m being squeezed by an anaconda, but I always notice a difference when I’m not wearing them and I eventually put them back on.

1000 Gifts App for iPhone – Okay, this isn’t really designed for pregnancy at all, but as much as I like having a handwritten “grateful for” list, when I’ve got my feet up, I’m less likely to get up to find it. But I do usually have my phone with me. So this free little app is helping me keep my perspective, especially when I’m frustrated with being large and laid-out.

(Another hint: use this app to let your kids capture some of their own “grateful fors.” My kids love snapping pictures of things that they are thankful for around the house.)

And at the top of my “grateful for” list, today and every day? These yahoos:

They remind me how “worth it” all this tub-soaking, medicating, and bed-resting is. Totally worth it. No matter how many York Peppermint Patties I have to eat…

Filed Under: Bed Rest Chronicles, Pregnancy, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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All About Reading Level Pre-1: A Vitafam Review

September 6, 2011 by LoraLynn

Many moons ago, the lovely people at All About Learning Press were giving away free samples of their new pre-reading program. I downloaded it because I liked their spelling and reading program.

The samples contained about two weeks’ worth of lessons. Ellen thought they were fantastic. She begged to do them every day. She even went through the lessons twice.

I showed them to a friend with older children and asked her opinion. Her response was, “You don’t need a book to tell you to clap the syllables of words. You know how to do that.”

I retorted, “Yes, but my brain is too addled to think of it right now. The trouble is I don’t REMEMBER to teach the little people the alphabet.”

So I wrote the nice people at All About Spelling and told them Ellen was interested in being a guinea pig for their new pre-reading program. They sent us a big box of goodies to review. And Ellen’s verdict is: “It’s Good. It makes me happy. I’m learning my ABCD’s.”

And I feel exactly the same way.

The program centers around a puppet Zebra named Ziggy. Ziggy tends to get his words mixed up or need help counting syllables. Ellen gets to interact with Ziggy and keep him from getting confused. And there’s just something about a puppet that makes us giggle.

You could always make your own sock puppet if you wanted to save some pennies. You could, in theory, just show your child a picture of Ziggy and tell stories about him. But if you can pull off a puppet, definitely do it. Because puppets are COOL, y’all.

We read a silly little poem about our daily letter and then she tries to find her letter in the poem. They’re just little stories that seem kind of dumb, but she finds them funny, especially when Ziggy reads them to her. And she’s looking at the words hunting for letters, so there has to be something educational in that.

We use Ziggy to play our word games. Sometimes that involves using the box of pre-sorted cards they provide. There’s matching games and rhyming games. The concepts seem really basic, but since I’m using the upper levels of All About Spelling to teach my kids to read, I can see where these very basic concepts come in handy. Ellen is already leaps and bounds ahead of where Adam was at this stage because she understands how to break a word down into sounds and syllables.

I think that, just like Adam, she would have picked it up just fine later on down the road, but this extra boost isn’t doing her any harm. (Adam often sneaks into our preschool lesson, too, so I know he would have enjoyed this a year or two ago.)

The last aspect we do is a coloring page. On the back of the page, there’s a suggestion for some other activity to do to the picture to make it a little more “crafty.” I love that they’re very basic ideas that use STANDARD household objects. I don’t need to worry about whether or not I have fuzzy pipe cleaners or buttons on hand. The suggestions are things like toothpicks, aluminum foil, or a piece of construction paper.

That, I can handle.

And, of course, if I’m feeling lazy, I just let her color the page and be done with it. But I think having these simple craft ideas on hand means she does more crafty things than I did with the boys at this age.

Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of doing this is that I have a designated time to hang out with my Little People. Ellen loves the quality time. We’re never alone, of course. Willa, Adam, and Mira all feel entitled to participate. And Sam and Ian are never far behind. But my focus gets to be on Ellen and Willa for a few minutes when I’m not angling to just meet their needs. That’s pretty special stuff.

So, do you NEED to do this curriculum in order to succeed with All About Spelling or teaching your child to read? No. But is it great preparation? Absolutely.

It’s open and go, y’all. No printing, cutting, or thinking involved on my part. And there’s a PUPPET. What’s not to love?

*******

To show you how preschool looks in our house, I’m swallowing my pride and letting you in on one of our lessons. Now you know the truth about my dopey puppet voice and how many interruptions I field in a four minute time frame. Enjoy!

*All About Learning Press generously provided the materials for this review, but the opinions are absolutely, positively, entirely my own.

*Affiliate links included as of 1/8/12

Filed Under: Book Review, Homeschooling, Vitafam Tested (Reviews)
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All About Reading Level Pre-1: A Vitafam Review

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