Mom Central Summer Giveaway

I know summer is busy, it's been quite crazy around here as well, so I definitely know!

However.

Is it ever, EVER, too busy to want to win FREE STUFF? No, that would be a big fat no, boys and girls.

Mom Central, that I love, as a top notch site for everything under the sun that matters to me (and many of you) is having massive giveaways.

However, you can't dawdle and you need to check out the Summer Giveaway Bonanza pretty much RIGHT THIS MINUTE because some of the first week giveaway items end today to enter to win!

So, hurry hurry! You don't want to miss: shoes for your toddler, a Hoover vacuum, a Super Soaker, a Kodak digital frame, and lots more stuff as you keep checking back to enter to win.

Run, don't walk, to check out the giveaway NOW!!!

Look Good...Feel Better

Six years ago tomorrow, I walked with my best friend Teresa at Relay for Life. For her. And her cancer was so new she'd only had one chemo treatment and hadn't even lost her hair yet, that would begin to fall out just a couple weeks later. And my daughter, Teresa's goddaughter, hadn't even turned one-year old yet.

My daughter was too young to know how hard it was for Teresa to not only fight the cancer but to go thru all the surface changes. When she went to pick out a wig, she was terrified. She took about 8 of us along to help her...we made a party out of it. But she needed us there to help her pick out a wig, but more than that, to remind her that she was still so beautiful even without her hair.

Teresa, as a nurse, was the type of person who met her cancer full-on with research in hand. Once she got thru that initial denial, she met everyone armed with an arsenal of information. But, that was just about her disease, not about her...as a woman. Mom Central told me about this website and I wish I'd known about Look Good...Feel Better to give her information about all those other insecurities that come from having cancer.

What is it, exactly?

Look Good…Feel Better is a free, non-medical, brand-neutral, national public service program created to help individuals with cancer look good, improve their self-esteem, and manage their treatment and recovery with greater confidence.

But, wow, what a great source of information for everything from wig selection to how to put your eyebrows back on when you lose them to chemo. Teresa always seemed even more frustrated with the lack of eyebrows and eyelashes than she even did about the hair on her head!

Look Good...Feel Better is celebrating its 20th anniversary by looking for people to share their survivor stories as part of the "Women of Hope is Beautiful" campaign. There's an extensive timeline of what has been going on the past 20 years with LGFB if you, too, are learning about it for the first time.

Take a look though, there's a blog and a place for women to submit stories and photos. Cancer is never easy, but finding a support network to get some answers and some help with even something that seems silly like how to apply eyeshadow when the eyes seem to fade away with the ravages of the disease and the challenges of treatment.

Cancer is hard, but finding support should be easy.

Mamapedia: the Wisdom of Moms

I don't think I'll shock anyone when I mention the phrase, "opinions are like a**holes, everybody has one".

But you know what? Sometimes you're so fluxommed that you seek counsel. Advice. The OPINIONS of others, God forbid. It's that whole "been there, done that" philosophy.

Literally, three days ago a friend on Facebook asked about getting her son to sleep thru the night and starting to wean him from night breastfeeding. Another college friend and I both gave our methods and experiences, she having nursed three babies and myself racking up four former nursers. Our methods both included a minimal implementation of "crying it out". Yet another person the inquiring mom knows offered other options and was NOT a fan of any letting baby cry. (The other mom and I were virtually called out for being child abusers, definitely not a case where a difference of opinion was shared in a respectful manner)

Different strokes for different folks.

My biggest feeling is that while so many people have different viewpoints, the most important thing to remember is to be respectful of other people's choices. Especially when it comes to parenting. Isn't it a hard enough job already? We already second guess ourselves enough hoping we make the best decisions when it comes to care and discipline, that unless we're doing something harmful, it really isn't anyone else's business.

But what if there's a situation where you feel uncomfortable talking to your girlfriends or your favorite aunt, and you want a variety of information from other people who have already handled the same scenario? That's where Mamapedia comes in.

I have looked all over the site. I don't know how long Mamapedia has been online but the gamut of topics is already varied. Not only that, but some of my own kiddie "issues" are on the site with lots of detailed and thoughtful responses from a lot of moms.

My boy-crazy daughter Sammie....yeah, having a boyfriend in 1st grade is a topic. (FYI: the consensus of opinion being that it's pretty harmless...I agree). There's also a thread concerning getting kids a video game system or not.

From conception to adulthood, the Mamapedia site is broken down by age groups so that you can go directly to the age of the child you have where you may have an issue you are struggling with and find the topic already exists or post a new query.

Pretty slick.

If you're in a place where you need to get a little more perspective and just need a variety of advice, with all the feedback on Mamapedia, you're bound to find a voice in the crowd similar to yours that makes sense and is helpful. And the nice thing is, after you "solve" your problem, you can go back and update the thread on how things turned out.

Thanks to Mom Central for sharing this little gem...it just may help me survive the teen years. Maybe.

Frosted Flakes Plant a Seed

I like it when corporations put it in the hands of the people to have a say in where charitable dollars are spent.

I can't remember what the organization was last year that had a school project to help a school and there were like five from across the country and Parkersburg, Iowa that had been leveled by a tornado was one of them. I have family that live there and to think that something could happen that would help the town rebuild was great to be a part of.

This time, it's Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, which I eat myself if I'm being honest, I don't just buy them for the kids. Anyway, they have a Plant a Seed initiative where they want to rebuild playing fields for kids in towns where the funds aren't there for upkeep and kids are losing out on places to play.

Voting is currently going on and ends May 31st, so you need to boogie on over there. I went over and voted for a field that is in a neighboring town to where I was born and raised.

Check it out! You'll be GGGGGreat! (you knew I was gonna go there, right?)

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: Mickey's Big Splash & Imagination Movers: Warehouse Mouse

Some PRish type folks sent me a couple new Disney DVDs, just in time for the coming summer months when approximately 3.7 days after school gets out they will be whining about how bored they are.

The nice thing for me was that my 5-year old is a big fan of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse series and she liked that one and my 6-year old (almost 7, as she keeps reminding me) is an Imagination Movers fan and she liked that one.

Everybody wins!

The Mickey Mouse disc is raring to go with a summer theme with the stories on the DVD. Emersyn was quite a fan of the bubble bath episode. But, with the genius of promotional materials, you can actually take a sneak preview yourself of a little bit of the DVD.



If you've never been a big fan of Mickey but your smaller kiddie seems interested, you might want to consider it. I swallowed the bitter pill that was "Barney" back in the day when my oldest son was little because he really loved it.
Not to mention, apparently it's a fan favorite all over.

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ranked as the #1 cable series with kids 2-5 in February 2009, with more than 24 Million unique viewers – over 42% of preschool kids age 2-5. It features the iconic characters of Mickey and friends encouraging teamwork and problem-solving.
(Source: Nielsen Media Research, National Ratings, Live +7, 1/26/09-2/22/09)

Not too shabby, even by Disney standards. There's some pretty stiff competition for what's on TV for the little kiddos to watch.

Next up was the Imagination Movers. I'm not gonna name names, but it seems the Imagination Movers are the dudes who get the moms all interested. Like, we're all supposed to have one guy we like...I'm just sayin, I've seen blog posts debating which mover is the hottest. I'm voting for Dave, myself, but to each their own.

That aside, my older daughter likes this show too and after a long couple weeks of soccer games and dance practices, she came home the day I offered up the DVDs for watching and plopped on the couch with her favorite blanket and chilled out. Didn't move a muscle 'til it was over. That's 88 minutes, folks. She both needed the break and it engaged her interest. I don't normally just let them do that...just sayin. Don't want you turning me in to child services for using the TV as a babysitter.

Anyway, as usual, the guys are up to solving the "Idea Emergencies" and getting on the crazy hijinks.

Sammie's favorite was the "Tooth Hurts" episode...watch the clip.



Both DVDs are good additions to your library, especially if your kids are already fans of the shows. Just in time for summer.

Nancy Drew for Wii

Nancy Drew. Isn't it amazing there are still Nancy Drew products coming out?

I was sent the new game for Wii Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek and I guess at first I was kind of surprised Nancy Drew is still on the scene.

My kids have heard of her and not from the recent movie offering. No, from hubby's mother who loved nothing more than she loved Nancy Drew when she was growing up.

At first I thought I'd play the game with my girls. But here was the problem. It's for ages 10 and up and for my 6YO daughter, that did apply. There is some reading involved that is more than her current reading level could handle.

So, I asked my almost 11YO son to try it out. I was playing for awhile myself but, in a total switch of personalities, I wasn't catching on as fast as my son was.

My kids, the boys specifically, have always been more excited about games with different levels and worlds and basically anything where you have to make progress of some kind. They've never really been into shooter games or sports games. So my son was quite adept at playing this Nancy Drew game where there is a set of things to accomplish and tasks to perform to keep moving along. Whereas I, am ashamed to admit, was losing patience somewhat at having to go along so diligently.

It's been crazy busy around here so they haven't gotten a chance to play it long enough to beat it and my son promised me that that snowball fight was "pretty tough", so it's good to have a game that actually challenges them. If your kids like those problem-solving type games, they'll like the mystery spin appeal of this game.

To buy: click here

Sid the Science Kid: The Dirt on Dirt

My youngest kid is probably my dirtiest. After two boys and an older sister, the "baby" girl seems to be the one with the most enthusiasm for being outside.

The episode "The Dirt on Dirt" summarized:

In an Earth Day-themed episode, Sid wants to know what makies dirt so dirty. At school, Sid and his friends discover that dirt is really important to the Earth because it helps things grow, and it's also filled with tiny rocks, pieces of leaves, and even living things like bugs and worms!

I had Emersyn watch the Sid the Science Kid episode first. Then Sammie watched with her. Then Zach watched it with them when they watched it again a 3rd time.

The kids have all planted seeds in dirt and grown things during the spring during projects at school starting from when they were preschoolers. We live in Iowa. We know a lot of about dirt here since we're an agricultural state, so my kids may by osmosis know slightly more information than a kid who doesn't live in an area heavy with farming.

But in the usual PBS programming style, the show does a nice job feeding a kid's curiosity and speaking to them in their language but also not dumbing it down. The show is geared for 3-6 year olds (which fit with my viewers, my girls who are 5 & 6 quite enjoyed it but my 10-year old was outside the target audience) and I think it does well with the information for that demographic.

I particularly liked the song Sid sings in the car about how great his mom is. Obviously.

DO NOT MISS this episode of Sid the Science Kid, it airs tomorrow April 22 on PBS KIDS. Check your local listings to find out when it's going to be on in your area.