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Category Archives: Reviews
Website Review: Thredup
I don’t remember how I found out about Thredup, but I was really glad to have found it. This is an easy way to get money for your children’s clothes.
There are two ways you can benefit from the website:
1. Sell your outgrown, new looking clothes to them.
2. Purchase new to you clothes and save!
This is a great website if you are one to not fuss with selling via yard sales, ebay, personal. All you have to do is request a bag, fill it up and send it back. They pay for shipping both ways. There are some restrictions, but for the most part they take most labels and sizes starting from 12 months. The only down side is that whatever you send them, you will not get back. You will either get money or they will donate it.
Do you have a product that you love? Please let me know!
Ashley Myers
Product Review: Safety First Tot Lok
that have a key! It didn’t take but a week for us to have them installed in our kitchen. My husband installed them with a little effort, and once he figured the first one out the rest were easy. Now there is no way for my son to get into the cabinets or drawers or even open them allowing him to pinch his fingers. We are now in the process of purchasing more in order to lock his bedroom drawers!
Do you have a product that you love? Please let me know!
Ashley Myers
Product Review: Highlands Calms Forte for Kids
When my son turned one year old he started to sprout both molars and teeth at a rapid pace. He also started to walk right after he turned one. With both of these milestones he wasn’t sleeping like he had been before. We were having trouble getting him to go to sleep and stay down. I was at the point where I was willing to try any recommendations I was getting. When I asked some of my mother’s friends for suggestions I kept hearing about Highlands Calms Forte for Kids. So I purchased it through Amazon and I am glad that I did. Most nights my son only needs one pill and within 15 minutes he is asleep. He is also sleeping through the night most nights! We give him a pill for naps and night-time and he sleeps better and longer when we give him the pill. We have incorporated it into his sleep routine. It also has helped with his night terrors he was getting a few times a week!
Do you have any products that you love? Please share!
Ashley Myers
Bookshelf: Your Pregnancy Week by Week by Glade B Curtis
Your Pregnancy Week by Week is a great book to read through your pregnancy. This book starts off before you even get pregnant. Each chapter goes by the week you are pregnant and has the same sections , so you are able to follow throughout your pregnancy. It starts each week with how big your baby is and how big the mom is. There is a section on how your baby is growing and developing each week. There are also sections at the end of each week explaining what tests maybe preformed during that week.
For me personally this book was a lot easier to read than any other pregnancy book. It is a quick read and the writing style is more talking to you than scientific talk. I have enjoyed reading it through both my pregnancies. They also have books to cater to fathers-to-be, weight and nutrition, and fitness.
This is a nice easy book to follow throughout your entire pregnancy
Ashley Myers
Bookshelf: The First Years of Forever by Ed Wheat
The First Years of Forever is a book to help engaged and married couples work through some common issues that come up in marriage. Each chapter touches on a different topic from faithfulness, forgiveness, and communicating to a chapter on how to lover your wife and husband. Each chapter goes into more detail about how to best overcome issues about that particular topic.
I recommend this book for anyone in a relationship. It holds valuable information on better ways to work towards a loving committed relationship. It also gives tips and tools for each partner to work on to better different aspects of the relationship. My suggestion is to read it together and discuss what you read after each chapter. Really listen to what they have to say, you might be surprised at what they think.
Remember that the foundation of a family starts with a husband and wife who are committed to each other and love each other.
Do you have a marriage book you recommend? Please share with me, I am always looking for different ways to improve my marriage.
Ashley Myers
Book Review: Meditations for Parents Who Do To Much by Jonathon and Wendy Lazear
My Stepfather and Mother gave me this book for Christmas last year. It is a great book for any parent. Each day you can read only one page that pertains to that day. These little passages are great for any parent that doesn’t have much time. It is a great reminder each day to live your life and not stress over the small stuff. I have been enjoying reading everyday and reflecting on each reminder to live and enjoy my life.
If you are looking for a book to help you slow down and enjoy life than this is the book for you!
Ashley Myers
Product Review: Thrive Foods and GIVEAWAY!!!!!!
I was introduced to Shelf Reliance Thrive Food by my mother and loved the idea of it right from the start. Thrive food is de-hydrated or freeze-dried food. There is a wide variety of different foods that can be used in many different ways, but for me, fruits and vegetables are the best!
At the time I was introduced, I was looking for a healthy snack for my son to feed himself. I knew that the typical puffs offered no nutritional value, and cereal was a lot of carbs. Thrive fruits are a perfect fit. My son is able to feed himself the fruit and I knew he was eating something healthy! He especially likes the bananas, we give them to him in the morning for breakfast, and even as a snack throughout the day. He also loves the pineapple, which is a great on the go snack for him. For older children it is great to send to school and not worry about the fruits going bad!
We have also found that some of the vegetables are great to have on hand because of the long shelf life. It is great to add chopped mushrooms and onions to a meal and not have to worry about it going bad! It is so easy to throw together a home cooked soup or stew with all the Thrive products, just throw in some chicken, a few of the vegetables with some chicken stock and you have chicken soup! We love to add the peppers, onions, and sausage to our eggs to spice it up.
Thrive food is great for camping too! You don’t have to worry about keeping fresh fruit and vegetables from going bad or getting eaten by animals! Plus you don’t have to keep it in the cooler, with all the thrive products you really have no reason to have a cooler! They have all the basics one would need to live off of without having to keep it cold.
Carol, independent Shelf Reliance Consultant, says “Forget buying the fake fruit things that are made with sugar, corn syrup, modified corn starch, and a bunch of other things I can’t even pronounce. How about something as simple as Freeze Dried Pineapple Chunks, whose only ingredient is pineapple! Or what about Freeze Dried Banana Slices, made only with bananas. Better yet (this is the fruit that really got my attention) Freeze Dried Blueberries, made only with, you guessed it, blueberries. In addition to a healthy food snack for your family, THRIVE Foods are all packaged in special double insulated cans that give them an extremely long sealed shelf life.”
I know that Thrive foods will be a staple in my household! Everyone loves the convenience and health benefits. If you would like more information on Thrive Products, feel free to contact Carol at orangesandapples@verizon.net.
Do you have a product that you absolutely can’t live without? Please share with us!
GIVEAWAY! Thanks to Carol at Shelf Reliance Thrive, you can try your very own Thrive product for FREE! All you have to do is “like” our Facebook Page or Follow our blog! If you already do both, leave a comment and I will make sure add you in the giveaway! GIVEAWAY is only open for 48 hours, so take advantage of it!
Ashley Myers
Review: Cosco Scenera Carseat
A few months ago, the search began to find an affordable but safe car seat before my son outgrew his infant seat. I did tons of research on the reviews of various car seats, both from other parents and from consumer reports.
What I found was that Britax was the overall best. Britax got the best reviews and tops for safety, but it also comes with a hefty price tag of over $250. Before I purchased something that expensive I wanted to make sure that it surpassed all other car seats. Then I stumbled upon Cosco Scenera.
The Cosco Scenera has one of the highest safety ratings out there and rivals Britax. The difference? It only goes up to 40 pounds where the Britax goes up to 80 pounds, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles, plus it is only about $60 compared to Britax price tag of $250+.
So, we ended up with 2 Cosco Sceneras for both my husband’s car and mine. It’s great! The car seat is slimmer, which is perfect for my Colbalt. Installation of both car seats only took about 10 minutes to complete. Overall, I am very happy with it.
Some of the cons that reviewers have is that the car seat only goes up to 40 pounds and it doesn’t have much padding. I found the padding to be about the same on the seat portion as other car seats. The Cosco Booster seat also gets great reviews for children weighing 40-80 pounds and only costs about $50.
Overall, I think that this Cosco Scenera car seat is great quality for the price and the best part is that it is one of the safest car seats out there
Ashley Myers
Guest Post: My Coth Diapering Experience Part 3
This is a Guest Post by Evelyn Langdon and Stay at home mom to Trevor and Scott.
Here’s an idea of what we have in our house and what works for our family:
My Diaper Stash
18 BumGenius One-Size 3.0 Pockets that I had snap converted (when I bought them, they only had Velcro closures; BG has since added the option to get snap closures)
8 medium-sized fitteds from various companies (my favorites are the 3 Short Rounds fitteds I lucked into – 2 were free, and the 3rd was only $7 including shipping)
3 medium-sized thirsties PUL covers
4 woolies – 1 recycled (pants made from the arms of a sweater), 1 interlock, on crocheted, and one knitted. My favorite is the interlock.
3 wetbags – One holds 2 diapers or 1 diaper and a set of dirty clothes, one holds about double that, and the 3rd holds about 40 diapers (I got that one for when we drove to Maryland from Colorado last summer and knew I wouldn’t have access to a washer for 3-4 days).
Diaper sprayer – hooked up to the toilet in the kids’ bathroom.
Diaper pail – really just a heavy-duty plastic trash can I got at Target.
(photo credit: My second son in a fitted diaper when he was about 10 months old)
Flannel liners – I have a few dozen of these that I use occasionally. If your little one needs to us a diaper rash cream or ointment, these liners are really great for keeping the goop off the inside of the diaper and causing stains.
Baby washcloths – I have probably 4 or 5 dozen of these, and they’re perfect for wiping my son’s little butt. I had about a thousand of them anyway, and I never used them. It seemed like the perfect solution!
8 oz. spray bottle – I use this to spray my cloth wipes before using them. I just fill it up with tap water, add a couple drops each of tea tree oil and peppermint oil, and keep it next to my pile of wipes.
Newborn stuff: 24 unbleached Indian prefolds, 4 thirsties PUL covers, and 2 or 3 Snappis
(photo credit: My Newborn Stash and BumGenius Diapers; I dyed the prefolds with Dylon dyes because I think white diapers are boring diapers)
Stuff I’ve Tried and Hated
Flushable liners – some people love them and think they’re great, but my kids have sensitive skin and complained that it made them itchy. It wasn’t worth the money I was (quite literally) flushing away for the convenience. However, if they hadn’t had sensitivity issues, these would have been GREAT for dealing with poopy diapers without having to spray them off.
Keeping cloth wipes wet – I haven’t personally tried this, but I’ve heard they get moldy in a day or 2, so I just never went there.
Closed diaper pail – can you say, “Pee-ew!” Yeah, that’s what I thought. Just don’t even try it.
Wet diaper pail – it encourages mold and mildew.
Rockin’ Green Cloth Diaper Laundry Products – soap residue builds up in your diapers (especially microfiber, yuck!) and makes them dingy, gray, and stinky. They make a product called “Funk Rock” which is supposed to help with this problem, but everyone I’ve heard of who’s tried it has told me it just made the problem worse.
Tips & Tricks I Love
Baking soda in the diaper pail – just a little sprinkle of baking soda after each diaper addition will help absorb smells and moisture while keeping the rest of your house smelling great. This is also why I do a pre-wash rinse – I don’t want to find out what it would do to my washer if I added vinegar to the mix! I get all the baking soda off first, THEN add vinegar.
No wetbags – once my son started having more solid poop, I stopped carrying a wetbag with me. If they don’t have liquid poo, you can just wrap the diaper up the same as you would w/ a sposie and stick it in the diaper bag. Some people like a wetbag anyway, but I’ve found the diapers are far easier to deal with (smell-wise) when they haven’t been in a waterproof bag for a couple hours.
My Wash Routine
This will vary from person to person. It’ll depend if you have a high efficiency or traditional washer and dryer, how many diapers you have vs. how many kids are using them, how much other laundry you have to do, and how much you hate doing said laundry. I only have 1 in diapers right now and we have a pretty large stash for him. I also own HE machines. I wash 3 times per week in addition to my regular laundry (I have 2 dedicated laundry days; I do NOT do my diapers on those days).
- Cold rinse, no detergent.
- Sanitize cycle with detergent. I also add white vinegar to the bleach dispenser.
- Cold rinse, no detergent
- Dry
Every now and then (generally every 2-3 months for me), you’ll notice your diapers aren’t absorbing well or look dingy or smell. . . funky. You’ll need to strip them when that happens. It’s pretty easy, just tedious. I’ve never stripped anything other than my BumGenius inserts, which are white, and I haven’t needed to do it since I got my HE washer. That being said, here’s what I did in my top-loader for my white inserts:
- Normal wash routine, but don’t dry.
- Separate the inserts from the rest of the diaper laundry. Put all the non-insert things into the dryer.
- Add ½ c bleach and 1 tablespoon blue Dawn dish soap and run the hottest cycle.
- 2 additional very hot washes with not detergent, bleach, or anything else.
- Dry
I do not use cloth when my son has diarrhea, and I use sposies at night, mainly because his pee has a lot of ammonia in it, and when we’ve tried him in cloth at night, he wakes up with chemical burns every morning. My older son didn’t have this problem, so he wore cloth at night.
I like to use prefolds with PUL covers or wool for newborns, simply because it’s the best way to get a good fit every time and prevent leaks while still protecting their little umbilical cord stump from getting bumped or irritated.
