Things I'm Loving This Thursday

this week I am loving...

• Moms who just do it...no excuses. Kia at Determined to Be Fit. She's doing a charity stair climb so please support her with a donation. Kim at What's That Smell is kicking Insanity butt and getting tweets from Shaun T himself. Rhonda at Motivation Mama Drama puts the sexy in Mom Sexy, seriously her abs are sick! Mary at the Mommyologist brings the wisdom on reclaiming your identity after you become a mom. These women inspire me to be a better mom and a stronger woman.
  

• Thesaurus.com has become my resource for honing my wordsmithing skills. It helps be to be able to say that running into someone is serendipity instead of just plain, old fate. I'm building a SAT vocabulary, y'all!
  

What are you loving this Thursday?! Link up!

CLOSED...Easy Organic Living Challenge Giveaway!

I am learning so much in the Health Child Healthy World Easy Organic Living Challenge and having fun too!

The challenge has provided me with many useful tools to start living organically, like this box of organic goodies from BabyCenter. It includes:

• a reusable BabyCenter shopping tote
• 1 box of Nature's Path Organic Instant Oatmeal
• 1 box Annie's Organic Bunny Berry Fruit Snacks
• 1 bag of Late July Multigrain Snack Chips
• 3 coupons for FREE 4-pack of Stonyfield YoBaby Organic Yogurt
• 3 $1 off coupons for Applegate meat and deli products
• 1 $1 off coupon for Nature's Path or EnviroKidz product
• DVD: Wake-Up to 5 Easy Steps: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home
• a copy of The Going Green Guidebook
• an Up, Up I Go Growth Chart by Eric Carle
• coloring and activity books for the kids

I can feel you eyeing my organic goodies, but don't be green with envy because I received an extra box to giveaway to one of my readers! I am going to make this giveaway really simple!

Mandatory first entry: Complete one of the Easy Organic Living challenges:

Challenge 1: Save a dollar here, shift a dollar there (open)
Challenge 2: Invent a Snack! (open)
Challenge 3: Give a meal an easy makeover (starts 4/6)
Challenge 4: You are what you eat-so what are you eating? (starts 4/20)

When you're finished, share your experience on the Easy Organic Living Challenge thread on BabyCenter. Come back here and leave the link in a comment on this post!

Extra Entries:

• Follow Marlie and Me, Healthy Child Healthy World and Stonyfield on Twitter and tweet this message (come back and leave a link to your tweet in a comment here): Join @Mommy2Marlie at BabyCenter for the Easy Organic Living Challenge and enter to #win organic goodies at www.marlieandme.com #ezorganic

• Share on your Facebook wall (come back and leave a link to your wall post in a comment here): Join me at BabyCenter for the Easy Organic Living Challenge and enter to win a reusable shopping tote filled with organic goodies at www.marlieandme.com sponsored by @healthychildhealthyworld and @stonyfield

The Rules:

• This giveaway will end on 4/30/11 at 11:59 pm CST
• Winner will be chosen randomly from all comments posted using a random number generator
• The winner will be notified by email and have 48 hours to respond. Please make sure I can contact you either by having an email address visible on your blog profile or leave your email address in your comment(s).
• By accepting the prize, the winner is granting permission to be identified as such.The winner's mailing address will be forwarded to the sponsor for prize fulfillment.
• The winner has one (1) month from the date of claiming the prize to report any problems (lost shipment, broken product). I will not be responsible for resolving issues after this time.
• In the event the prize is not claimed in the allotted time another winner will be chosen. Giveaway is open to US and Canada residents. Must be at least 18 years of age to participate. Void where prohibited.
• Entries that do not follow instructions or are falsified will be disqualified

This blog post is part of the Easy Organic Living program co-hosted by Baby Center and Healthy Child Healthy World and sponsored by Stonyfield.

www.EasyCanvasPrints.com Review

I have been itching to get some of Marlie's baby photos enlarged, but not on photo paper. Canvas prints are what's in!

Thanks to www.EasyCanvasPrints.com I was able to start my gallery of Marlie art. The 4-step ordering process is idiot-proof and includes advanced image effects such as retouching and sepia tone. Plus, it's affordable...custom canvas prints start at only $29.99!

I am beyond happy with my canvas print order. It looks and feels like a real painting! You too can get canvas prints that are so good, you'll want to display them in a museum.

Marlie admiring her image.

The backside of the canvas print. Nicely wrapped, secured and ready to hang!

Marlie's canvas print hanging on her bedroom wall.

Coupon Crackdown?

Becky G. at A Full Cup alerted me to this announcement from Kroger concerning the end of coupon stacking in their greater Houston area grocery stores. The page explains the new policy in full, but in a nutshell it means customers will no longer receive double or triple discounts on items for which they have multiple coupons.

I just got on the coupon bandwagon after following coupon-clipping blogs for the past year. One of the biggest draws is being able to stack coupons. I went to Kroger instead of Whole Foods this past weekend for that very reason. I hope this anti-stacking practice doesn't spread to Kroger stores in North Texas.

It seems that Kroger is going against the trend with this decision. Coupon stacking is very popular, some may even say it's a competitive sport. Just look at that new show on TLC from Extreme Couponing where shoppers walk out of stores with hundreds of dollars in merchandise for pennies on the dollar.

Personally, I think that Kroger is doing a public disservice. Couponing is a life-saver in these bleak economic times. We should write our grocery stores and urge them not to eliminate coupon stacking!

Muppet Idol: Humor Me!

The comparison of Casey Abrams to Fozzie Bear got me thinking...what if they did a movie of the season 10 American Idol contestants, but cast The Muppets?!

Some of them are perfect matches and some are stretches of the imagination, but I think we have the next Muppet movie.

I know what you're thinking, G-E-N-I-U-S! I know!!! Retweet if you agree.


Fozzie Bear as Casey Abrams


Janice as Naima Adedpo


Miss Piggy as Lauren Alaina


Bubba as James Durbin


Kermit as Stefano Langone


Gonzo as Jacob Lusk


Rowlf as Scotty McCreery


Floyd Pepper as Paul McDonald


Kai-Lee as Thia Megia


Prairie Dawn as Haley Reinhart


The Countess as Pia Toscano

I couldn't resist this one...

Animal as Steven Tyler

Muppets photos borrowed from http://muppet.wikia.com

Winner of UPrinting.com Business Cards

By Rico Shen (Rico Shen) [CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Congratulations to #37...Timbo who tweeted his way to victory! He is the random drawing winner of the 250 Die Cut Business Cards from UPrinting.com!

Thanks to everyone who entered and shared this giveaway!.

Random numbers generated Mar 26 2011 at 8:48:47 by www.psychicscience.org

CLOSED...Juice in the City: $20 Juice Buicks Giveaway

I am addicted to daily deal sites. Not in a perverse, hunched-over-my-computer-in-the-dark-with-the-glare-of-the screen-burning-my-retinas kind of way. I am in total control of my habit (or in denial).

Juice in the City is one of my favorites because it is run by and for moms. Each awesome deal is personally recommended by a local mom near you!

Right now, the Dallas/Fort-Worth area daily deal is $15 for a $30 gift certificate to be used for any service at LemonGrass Spa. This is a limited quantity deal, so act fast! There are similar bargains being offered today in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, LA, NYC, Philadelphia, San Fransisco, Washington DC, and more cities!

Juice in the City is committed to providing local moms with a well-deserved deserve a daily dose of concentrated fun without spending too much of their family's hard earned money.

To get the party started, Juice in the City is offering one of my readers $20 in Juice Bucks!

Mandatory first entry: Create a Juice in the City account or let me know if you already have one (open to contestants where JITC operates)

All extra entries listed below are worth one (1) additional admission into this giveaway. Please leave a separate comments for each extra entry you complete)

Extra Entries for Supporting the Sponsor:

• Find and Like your local Juice in the City on Facebook (leave your FB name)
• Find and follow your local Juice in the City on Twitter (leave your Twitter ID)
  

Standard Extra Entries:

• Be a current or new follower of Marlie and Me via Google Friend Connect
• Be a current or new subscriber of Marlie and Me via email (subscription must be activated)
• Grab my button (leave the URL in your comment)
• Add www.marlieandme.com to your blog roll, make sure it's the new domain name (leave your URL in the comment)
• Follow Marlie and Me at Networked Blogs on Facebook (leave your FB name)
• Follow me on Twitter and tweet this message (can tweet once daily. leave the URL to the tweet in your comment): I just entered to #win $20 in Juice Bucks from #juiceinthecity at www.marlieandme.com #giveaway via @Mommy2Marlie
• Vote for Marlie and Me at Picket Fence Blogs (click button above Google Friend Connect widget)

The Rules:

• This giveaway will end on 4/9/11 at 11:59 pm CST
• Winner will be chosen randomly from all comments posted using a random number generator
• The winner will be notified by email and have 48 hours to respond. Please make sure I can contact you either by having an email address visible on your blog profile or leave your email address in your comment(s).
• By accepting the prize, the winner is granting permission to be identified as such.The winner's mailing address will be forwarded to the sponsor for prize fulfillment.
• The winner has one (1) month from the date of claiming the prize to report any problems (lost shipment, broken product). I will not be responsible for resolving issues after this time.
• In the event the prize is not claimed in the allotted time another winner will be chosen. Giveaway is open to US residents only in JITC participating cities. Must be at least 18 years of age to participate. Void where prohibited.
• Entries that do not follow instructions or are falsified will be disqualified

Baby Log: 1 Year and 31 Weeks Old

The first day of spring was this week, but it's hot like summer here in Dallas!

• Marlie has adjusted to the daylight savings and is sleeping on schedule again...maybe it was the spring equinox
  
• We have lift off on the potty learning! After months of giving us clues, Marlie sat on her pot and made a little tinkle. I am still searching for cotton training pants that will fit my peanut. We are ready to get out of diapers!
• We went back to the pediatrician on Thursday for the weigh-in...dun, dun, dun! Marlie gained a whopping 1 lb. 3 oz. in one month. I knew she felt heavier, but I was not expecting that big of a leap. So her doctor was right about giving her extra calories. I did it my way though with whole nutrition (homemade smoothies packed with fresh fruits, veggies, and blended with protein powder), not some can of sugar water and synthetic vitamins. win-win-win!
  

Let the Insanity Begin! Week Five Results

This week was the start of phase 2 of Insanity.

I'm not sure how I made it through the week.

Phase 1 felt like a dress rehearsal and phase 2 is live on stage! Phase 1 was a cuddly pussycat and phase 2 is an angry Bengal tiger!

I think you catch my drift. This week was I-N-S-A-N-E! I was sore all over for the first time since I started this program. On the bright side, my clothes are feeling loose and I can fit into my tiny tees for the first time since I was 0 months pregnant with Marlie.

Only 3 more weeks to go...itsy bitsy bikini, hear I come!

Easy Organic Living Challenge #2: Invent a Snack!

Sometimes it’s tricky getting kids to eat healthy snacks, but we know moms are capable of some very creative solutions. You can make your child’s snacks even healthier by using organic ingredients. Protect your family by taking simple steps that have a big impact!

Your challenge:
Create a healthy snack using at least one organic ingredient and then share your invention.

Directions:

1. Brainstorm some simple ingredients as the basis for your snack – things like fruit, yogurt, and nuts make a great healthy foundation. Choose at least one organic ingredient.
2. Consider how to use your ingredients – maybe a smoothie, a parfait, popsicles?
   
3. Try it and test it. Is it kid-approved?
4. Share! When you're satisfied with your creation, here's what to do: Type up the recipe in a traditional format — list the ingredients followed by instructions.

Remember to register at Baby Center to join the Easy Organic Living Group. Share your snack recipe in the comments on the Challenge Post. They'll select a mix of recipes from those received to share with other BabyCenter visitors. Healthy Child and Stonyfield will share on their sites as well!

Things I'm Loving This Thursday

this week I am loving...

• My first celebrity follower on Twitter! If you don't know who Victoria Rowell is, she is soap opera royalty and a foster care advocate...you better recognize! It just so happens she is also my soror (sorority sister). ee-yip!

• Bioelements. I am extending my quest to going all-natural and organic to my beauty products, starting with skin care. I'm in love with Bioelements from their natural ingredients (never tested on animals) to the eco-friendly product packaging. My skin loves it too!

What are you loving this Thursday?! Link up!

Wordful Wednesday: M is for...

The M from Damon's laptop is "missing" because Marlie plucked it out. Maybe she was trying to spell her name.

TweetUp at Pier 1 Imports

Remember this sponsored post previewing Pier 1 Import's new spring line?

Well, I went to see it for myself yesterday. I joined three other bloggers for a TweetUp at a local Pier 1 store. I was a bit disappointed that there were no activities planned for the bloggers other than sitting there waiting for the $50 gift card raffles. We looked around the store, made small talk and WAITED. I left after two hours. It was good to get out of the house sans toddler, but I wish I could report that my free evening was a fabulous, good time!

Back to Pier 1.

The spring outdoor collection looks even better in person. Bright, bold colors mixed with old-fashioned textiles to create modern pieces.

Here I am trying out the new Rockasan...

I have to get one of these!

EZ Organic Living: Save a Dollar Here, Shift a Dollar There

Read this previous post for an explanation about what this is all about.

This week's challenge: For a full week, make a conscientious effort to save money by using some of the tips provided. Then shift your savings to organics!

Since we buy groceries for the entire week on Saturday morning, I spent last Friday night planning our shopping trip. Our weekly grocery budget is $100. [update: Kim was surprised at our food budget, so here's an explanation: we eat very little meat. we only buy chicken and eat it as a meal every other day. we eat lots of bean dishes in between.] My goal was to stay within our normal budget. My strategy was to use the tips for this challenge-- find lots of coupons and pass the savings to the organic items I wanted to buy: eggs, dairy, fruits and vegetables.

I spent 2 hours searching for coupons and learning about organic brands (it will be much less time as I get better at this). I was surprised at how many high-value coupons and deals I found for organic brands when I looked at coupon sites like Money Saving Mom, the store circulars where I shop, and the guide at Healthy Child. Even better, I came away with stacked coupons for several brands! We hit two stores armed with coupons, reusable shopping bags and a calculator.

So, how did we do? Pretty good! We spent $104.05. It was slightly over because I picked up a couple of items we normally don't buy because the discounts were too awesome to pass up. Here is a breakdown of our coupon savings:

@Whole Foods
Sea Salt Almond Nut Crackers (we don't usually buy boxed snacks)
2.99- .75 WF coupon= 2.24

OIKOS 8 oz.Plain Organic Greek Yogurt
3/$4 on sale (bought one)
1.33-$1.00 WF coupon= .33 (my biggest score!)

Babara's High Fiber Cereal (we don't buy boxed cereal, but the double discount was calling my name!)
4.69-1.00 WF coupon-1.00 manufacturer coupon= 2.69

Organic Valley 18 Count Medium Brown Eggs
4.99-.75 manufacturer coupon= 4.24

Organic Valley 8 oz. Cottage Cheese
3.99-1.00 WF coupon-.75 manufacturer coupon= 2.24

Muir Glen Organic Canned Tomatoes
3.19-1.00 WF coupon-1.00 manufacturer coupon= 1.19

Seventh Generation 48 oz Dishwashing Liquid
4.99-1.00 WF coupon-.50 manufacturer coupon= 3.49

Total Savings=$9.75!
There is a catch. The Whole Foods we shopped at does not stack coupons, but they made an exception just this once. I'm going to have to rethink shopping there because matching up coupons is a big part of affording to shop organic for us.

With our almost $10 in savings we bought these organic produce: bell pepper ($2.89), blueberries ($3.99), and apples ($1.60). We can't afford to buy all organic produce, so we mainly stuck to organic fruit and vegetables if they were on the Dirty Dozen list of foods most contaminated with pesticide residue. It helped a lot that our second stop, Sunflower Farmers Market, was having a super sale on organic produce. We picked up more apples...plus broccoli, carrots, chard, celery, lettuce, onion, spinach, and yams:

I should also mention that I received a $.60 discount off our bill for using reusable shopping bags.

My next goal is to find a way to afford organic meat. Damon heard that Costco has decent prices on organic meat. We happen to have a free membership, but never go...so guess where we went on Sunday? Costco offered two organic whole chicken fryers for $20-$25. Not bad! We didn't purchase any this week because we had already spent our grocery money for this week, but I'm already working it in to week's shopping trip.

To learn how you can cut costs so you can afford organic and/or to try this challenge register at Baby Center at join the Easy Organic Living Group.

Disclosure: part of the Easy Organic Living program co-hosted by Baby Center and Healthy Child Healthy World and sponsored by Stonyfield

I'm an Easy Organic Living Challenge Blogger!

Healthy Child, Healthy World invited me at 24 other health-conscious bloggers to challenge ourselves and our readers to get educated about organic living. Can you guess how many cartwheels I did after I got word that I was selected to participate in this program? The answer is four.

I am all about the organic lifestyle over here, but I consider myself semi-crunchy. I don't always have resources to get organic food (the money or the shopping know-how). Well, I have no more excuses because the Easy Organic Living Challenge is going to teach me how! Over the next four weeks, I will embark on a journey toward adopting a more organic diet. Each week is focused on a different aspect of organic living (making it affordable, homemade snacks, meal preparation, and awareness about the ingredients in our food)

You should be doing cartwheels too because I will be sharing everything I learn with you on my blog. Plus, there is going to be a giveaway...an reusable shopping tote filled with organic goodies!

You can join the challenges too:

• Save a dollar here, shift a dollar here: you don’t need a bigger budget to start buying organic. Use these tips to save money then shift your savings to organics. This one has already started, visit the Easy Organic Living Group on Baby Center to jump in!
  
• Invent a snack: You can make your child’s snacks even healthier by using organic ingredients.
• Give a meal an easy makeover: prepare a meal for your family that includes at least one organic ingredient.
• You are what you eat – so what are you eating?: Spend a few minutes this week learning about your food. Read a label!

Connect with the Easy Organic Living Challenge on these social media:

• Facebook
• Follow the #ezorganic hashtag on Twitter or tweet @Healthy_Child
  

I hope you you are as excited as I am about going organic! Stay tuned for more posts as I discover how easy organic living is to achieve.

Disclosure: part of the Easy Organic Living program co-hosted by Baby Center and Healthy Child Healthy World and sponsored by Stonyfield

Baby Log: 1 Year and 30 Weeks Old

Anyone adjusting badly to daylight savings time? raises hand.

I've been up at 4:00 or 4:30 almost every morning and someone else is fighting her 7:00 bedtime and waking up before the rooster crows. Plus, she is teething again. All four incisors are coming in at once. The good news is that this is the end of the teething drama (except for 2-year molars, but when those come in I plan to give her high doses of NyQuil...I jest).

Marlie is finally saying cat instead of calling everything with fur and four legs a dog. She is also pointing to infants and saying baby. This is probably because her lead teacher at school just had a baby girl and Marlie just loves her to pieces. She is going to make a great big sister.

Her newest copycat move is to make one or both of us lie down on the floor, throw a blanket over us, pat our stomachs and tell us to "sleep." We have to close our eyes and pretend to snore to satisfy her.

Let the Insanity Begin! Recovery Week Results

Recovery Week is over, though I don't feel like it was any easier than the regular workouts.

Today we started the second phase of the program! Shaun T unleashes the crazy with a Fit Test AND a 60-minute workout on Day 36. I nearly died. Here's how I did on fit test 3:

80 switch kicks
66 power jacks
95 power knees
38 power jumps
10 globe jumps
12 suicide jumps
16 push up jacks
30 low plank obliques

I feel like the next four weeks are going to define my success with Insanity. Up to this point I have been only halfway in...not on the exercising, but I've definitely been slacking on the eating healthy part. I think I eat better than the average person, but I do cheat...a cupcake here, some BBQ beef brisket with mac 'n cheese there. I know better. There is a difference between looking good in your clothes and having a beach body underneath. The secret of the hard bodies we all admire is that they exercise a lot and eat impeccably (not by starving themselves, but by avoiding the wrong foods). I know that it will take a combination of exercise and eating right to wear a teeny bikini this summer.

So for the remainder of this program, I am going to clean up my diet:

• I'll be sticking to Tier 1 and 2 of Mitch's Ladder

• I'll be avoiding foods that cause inflammation, which stresses the immune system and leads to water weight gain, especially around the middle
  

• I'll be eating organic. I don't need toxic pesticides and processed foods clogging up my digestive system when I am trying to lose weight. That's why I joined the Easy Organic Living Blogger Challenge to learn how to shop organic! Sign up to see what the bloggers are doing and check back Monday for more my first post.

Things I'm Loving This Thursday

This week, I'm loving...

• Humankind. Just when I think the human race is doomed to suffer the fate of self-destruction, something happens to restore my faith in my fellow human being. In the aftermath of the quake/tsunami in Japan I saw proud resilience in the faces of the Japanese people and some incredible efforts to help. If you are members of survey sites some, like i-Say, will let you donate your points to the Red Cross. Go here for more ways to help Japan recover.

• The Karate Kid 2010. I finally watched in on Monday when I saw it in my Netflix Instant Watch library. I must be the last person on Earth to see this movie. I'm not usually a fan of remakes, but this movie was A-W-E-S-O-M-E! It had so much heart and soul...and genuinely good acting! The best part was watching Jaden Smith, he has so many of his dad's charms and mannerisms.
  

What are you loving this Thursday?! Link up!

Tostitos Reunite America Contest

Tostitos wants to reunite loved ones who are separated across the country.

Entering is simple.

Go to the Tostitos Reunite America Facebook App and tell the world why your long-lost friend or family member is so special to you, and you might just win a once-in-a-lifetime reunion including airfare and hotel accommodations.

Disclosure: I did not receive any monetary or in-kind compensation for posting this information. I am doing it as a public service (and Damon asked me to share it on my blog).