Wordless Wednesday

When teething, most children chew on toys. My baby girl chews on the stove.....

Kids Konserve coupon and GIVEAWAY!

Kids Konserve; packing green lunches/snacks with style and eco-cool reusable products for a clean conscience.

Fact: Each Student creates 67 pounds of trash per year! That's 18,760 pounds of trash from one average sized elementary school!!

Kids Konserve was founded by two women, both moms, who wanted to send the right message to their children about helping the environment. Realizing the amount of waste that was produced in just the one hour of school lunch, they researched products and developed the Waste-Free Lunch Kit.

What better way to teach our children about lessening their carbon footprint, than with our actions! If we pack our child's lunch with no plastic bottles and bags, no paper napkins and bags,and no juice boxes, our kiddos will have nothing to add to this trash total. They will know that they are making a difference every day!

All of Kid Konserve's products are NON-TOXIC, non-leaching, BPA, PVC, Phthalate and lead-free.

Now what I just LOVE about this company, besides their safe eco-friendly products, is their focus on environmental education. They believe, as I do, that the knowledge we give our children now will enable them to change the future.

Kids sponsors a Waste-Free Lunch Challenge in schools. This challenge gives schools the opportunity to raise money and brings awareness through teaching on how not creating waste. Over 40 schools have participated and more are signing up!

Small voices add up to big things!!!

Right now, Kids Konserve is offering you, my reader, 15% off your total purchase until 10/31/09. Visit Kids Konserve store by clicking here and show your support for this mom run, eco-friendly company and use coupon code: earth at check out.

They are also offering up a set of Stainless Steel Containers for my very first giveaway!!!

***So to enter first you must visit Kids Konserve and leave me a comment about another one of their products that I have not mentioned here, or something else you have learned from their site that I did not mention. THIS IS MANDATORY.***

After you have done the MANDATORY entry, you can enter again by doing all or some of the following. Remember to leave a SEPARATE COMMENT FOR EACH ENTRY.
Please leave your email address so I can contact you if you win. Winners will be drawn with random.org. Giveaway ends 10/31.
*Follow my blog and leave me a comment that you do
*Follow me on Twitter, leave me a comment here
*Follow kidskonserve on Twitter, leave me a comment
*Tweet this giveaway, leave me a comment. Can copy and paste this:
RT KidsKonserve Stainless Steel Containers giveaway and coupon @aMothersEarth http://www.amothersearth.blogspot.com/
*Become a fan of Kids Konserve on Facebook, leave a comment here
*For 3 entries blog about this giveaway, leave 3 separate comments

Thanks, and Good Luck!!

(Comments in bold print are taken directly from the Kids Konserve website and/or press packet)

My Favorite Pancake Recipe

We are HUGE breakfast eaters. Pancakes are our favorite! Tonight I am even making them for dinner. This is the best recipe I have found and I love it because you can actually make the mix ahead and store it in your fridge for up to 3 months. I think you can get 3 batches of pancakes out of one batch of mix. This recipe is from "Whole Grains For Busy People" by Lorna Sass, a cook book that I have mentioned before. Enjoy!

Pancake Mix

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt

Mix all ingredients. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 months in an air tight container.


Pancakes

1 large egg
1 cup of buttermilk (I never have buttermilk on hand, so I replace it with yogurt and milk to equal 1 cup. Enough milk added to the yogurt to make it not so thick. Or you can use a cup of milk with 1 tablespoon of lemon added.)
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 cup pancake mix

Mix all ingredients. Drop about by about 1/3 to 1/4 cup scoops onto a buttered and heated pan/griddle. This batter is pretty thick, so you will have to flatten it a bit when cooking :) I usually get about 10 pancakes out of a batch.

I almost always add other things to my pancake batter. Fruit is good- apples, peaches or bananas. I will add spices too, depending on what fruit I use. 1/8 teaspoon of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and/or cardamon.  I also use flavored yogurt if that's what I have in the fridge. Tonight I might add coconut and raisins (never tried this before, might be an update on the outcome!).

Today, My Toddler Taught ME

"Mommy, Daddy, wake UP!",  Logan yelled excitedly as he ran into our bedroom this morning. I felt a slight moment of panic. Thoughts ran through my head.  Is there a fire?  Where's Sophie? (as I am moving her foot from my face). Something must be wrong!  This is not his usual method of waking us. He is a fan of the silent approach. He sneaks up to either mine or the  hubby's side of the bed and does the "silent stare" until we are startled awake. The first words out of his mouth are almost always, "I wanna watch Noggin".

"Mommy, Daddy, GET UP!", he yells again. He is now jumping around the bed. "IT'S A BEAUTIFUL, SUNNY, SUNNY DAY!"  That's it. There is no fire. There is nothing wrong. It is just a beautiful sunny, sunny day, and he is sooooo happy!

If only we could all wake up each and every day with such enthusiasm! Through out the day when I felt a case of the crankies coming on I would take a deep breath and think, "It's a beautiful sunny, sunny day!", and channel my little guys positive outlook!

Wordless Wedneday- Protect Health Insurance Companies PSA

Protect Insurance Companies PSA from Will Ferrell

Wet Socks and Boobies

I never get a fever *knocks on wood*. Or so I thought.  Last Sunday night I felt like I got hit by a mac truck.  I was freezing, my back and head were killing me. It took everything to get the kiddos to bed. When I finally got around to taking my temperature  it was 101.5. Yikes. I popped some Ibuprofen and decided to put the Wet Sock Treatment to the test. Now, I have been recommending this treatment to EVERYBODY, since the kiddos Dr passed the info to us. The hubby has done it countless times and it has been successful every single one (he works at a Casino and is constantly catching something).  I have never tried it myself. I don't get sick *knocks on wood, again*. So, with the thought of how I was possibly going to make it through the next day feeling as I did, AND keep 2 kiddos under 3 fed and safe, I decided it was time I followed my own advice.

Before I went to bed I wet 2 cotton white socks with cold water, rang them out and put them on my feet. Over them I put a pair of dry wool socks.

That's it. Now, I am a person who does not like to be wet. Wet hair, wet bathing suit, don't like em. And I'm a Pieces, figure that one out! But trust me, if you are feeling yucky, this is that last thing that's gonna bother you! The theory behind the Wet Sock Treatment is that while you are sleeping, the socks pull the toxins out of your body, or something like that. You will actually feel it happen over night with heavy sweating. I did.

When I woke up the next morning the fever was gone. I felt better, but not 100%.  Maybe 80%.  That evening when I went to breastfeed Sophie, I noticed that my right boobie was a bit painful. I realized that this boob had been a bit sore the day before, but I chalked it up as engorgement since we were at a tractor show and the excitement was too distracting for Sophie to breastfeed. Now it really hurt, and it was bright red, and when I touched it there was a noticeable lump. I have heard of Mastitis and clogged ducts, but have never experienced either myself.  Through the pain, I tried to get Sophie to empty it. She, being almost one and on the road to weening herself, had other ideas.

After she went to bed, I dug through my breast feeding supplies and found Breast Therapy Warm or Cool Relief Packs.

I have no clue where I got these from, whether from the hospital, a shower, or just bought myself at some point. They were still in the box. After taking a hot shower (helped a little with the pain), I put one of the packs in the microwave to use the heat to help me pump and drain the boob. The other pack I put in the freezer to apply after the pumping.

After a painful sleep, I called my doctor in the morning to see if she could take me. She could, but by the time I got there most of the pain and redness where GONE! My doctor was a bit confused as the fever and body aches where a sign of Mastitis, an infection that needs antibiotics to get rid off. Since I did the Wet Sock Treatment there was NO FEVER (I had to explain this to her, and momentarily felt like a crazy lady). She prescribed me some Dicloxacillin to be "safe". Well, I am very hesitant to take antibiotics while breastfeeding. The hubby is allergic to all the "cillians". I had to stop breastfeeding the little guy at 7 months when I got Lyme's Disease, due to his projectile vomiting after feeding. Sophie, after 11 months of boobies, I did not see taking well to going cold turkey if she too showed signs of an allergy. Since I seemed to be getting better on my own, I decided to wait and see how I felt the next day before taking any antibiotics. If I was feeling pain again, or was even close to a fever, I would take them and pray that Sophie had no reaction. Lucky for me, and Sophie, the next day ALL pain and redness where gone, and still no fever. Yeah! Antibiotics avoided!

For more info on the Wet Sock Treatment visit here. It explains how it really works.

Take Action: Our Children's Education- from Preschool to College

The town I live in is small. So small, that we don't even have a high school. We have one school that goes from 3 year old preschool to 8th grade. Yup, I said 3 year old preschool. It's FIVE days a week for 1/2 a day. The little kiddos can ride the SCHOOL BUS- in CAR SEATS provided by the bus company. Oh, and did I mention that this program is FREE. Yup, FREE, and grants make this possible. Grants that will be made more available with the passing of HR3221 when it goes before congress on Sept 17th.

HR3221, The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2009, when passed, will improve the educational possibilities for our children from early childhood, all the way through to college.

Here's how:

The Early Learning Challenge Fund (Title IV), will increase grants to implement pre K programs for disadvantaged children. It also proposes more grants to aid states in developing early childhood programs.

Title III, offers grants to states for the modernization, renovation and repair of Public school facilities- Elementary, Secondary and Community Colleges. There will be extra grants available for the states that were hit hard by hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Title I is called Increasing College Access and Completion and aims to do just that. There are proposals to increase the maximum Pell grant amount, and to simplify the Student Financial Aid form, among other things.

Title II covers student loan reform. Any one with student loans knows ANY reform will help there!! Especially with the increase in the fees of higher education.

To read HR3221 in full, visit GovTrack.us, where I got this info.

It is important for us to let our Legislators know RIGHT NOW that we want them to support HR3221. Visit MomsRising.org here, and send a letter to your Representative with just a click of the button! And join MomsRising while you're there, this organization ROCKS!