I’m late to this Breyer’s Smooth & Dreamy blog tour, but I have a good excuse: I wanted to eat every last one of the bars & sandwiches in my freezer first.  Between me and Jamie, we’re almost done.  We got out of the habit of eating ice cream every night, you know.  Since we both spent the summer trying to get back in shape, laying off the sweets has been a top priority.

I jumped at the opportunity to thy the new Breyer’s ice cream bars  and sandwiches.  Wouldn’t you?  A girl’s gotta get her chocolate fix and I have SO been missing chocolate ever since I started my low fat diet.  Since these frozen treats are low in fat, calories, with no artificial flavors or colors, I simply thought, “Yes, please.”

LOOK:

I’m an ice cream sandwich kind of girl, so I preferred those over the bars.  Both were very, very delicious, though!

WIN:

Two readers will be picked to win two coupons each for any flavor of the Breyers Smooth & Dreamy bars and sandwiches.  For your chance to win, leave me a comment telling me which flavor(s) you’d like to try.  That’s all!

I’ll close comments and pick a winner on August 8, 2010.  Good luck!

All joking aside, I have had a hard time treating my body well since Timothy was born almost fifteen months ago.  I was doing great, but life happens, right?  I had just started going back to yoga and pilates and trying to heal my split abs when I had that pesky appendix removed.  Recovering from that wasn’t all that bad, but winter came along, complete with everyone and their grandma getting stomach flu, colds, etc., etc.  Jamie was in classes in the evenings, I had rehearsals, and we found ourselves eating out A LOT, and I’m not even going to get into the horrible, horrible foods we were eating and eating to excess.  Oh, and going to the gym?  Forget it.  I tried taking Timothy and Simon by myself once, but it was a nightmare.

A couple months ago, I found out that I have high cholesterol.  I knew I was overweight.  Not obese by any means, but I weighed just a couple pounds more than I weighed when I was pregnant with my firstborn.  Yeah.  I have been embarrassed to go out in public because nothing fit but some drawstring pants and some t-shirts.  It was getting ridiculously depressing.

When Mom Central offered me the opportunity to try a new line of nutritional drinks and foods from Smart for Life that are (mostly) organic and contain good stuff like fiber & vitamins, I honestly couldn’t resist.

About the underWAY drinks:

The underWAY supplement drink, infused with a special HeroFiber and heart-healthy vitamins, works naturally to suppress your appetite and quench your thirst. underWAY curbs your hunger two ways. Its special formulation not only takes longer for the stomach to absorb, it also slows the absorption of what’s already there, making you feel fuller, longer. What’s more, its unique ingredients stimulate your stomach, telling your brain you’ve consumed more calories that you really have which, with underWAY, is almost zero! It contains no preservatives, sodium or caffeine, with only 10 calories and 2 grams of carbs per 8 oz. serving. HeroFiber, a soluble dietary fiber, helps maintain normal levels of cholesterol, glucose and insulin that are already in the normal range.

The Açai-Pomegranate drink?  SO GOOD.  I was also sent the Grape flavor, but I’m not a fan of any grape flavoring.   Jamie liked them, though!  I also loved all the different snacks they sent: cookies, cupcakes, etc.  It was all delicious and although I don’t believe I could follow a diet plan as outlined by the Smart for Life website, I already bought a package of the drinks when I ran out of the samples they sent.  I can see myself eating the cookies for breakfast, too.  They’re so yummy!!

Adding underWAY and Smart for Life cookies to my now very active lifestyle seems to be very promising for me.

Want a discount?

The nice people with Smart for Life are happy to offer my readers a special 10% discount code for underWAY and Smart for Life products. Please use MCUS10OFFUW for underWAY products at www.underWAY.com and MCUS10OFFSFL at www.smartforlife.com. These will go live July 2nd and expire August 30th.

I really hope you try these out for yourself.  Guilt-free snacks?  Can’t beat ‘em.

Stock up on tees and shorts and backpacks you guys!

I want this balance ball chair so badly. I had a yoga ball once. But you know how things last in this house.

Everyone in the family has sandals or “flibflubs” (Simon’s word) except for Timothy. I’m thinking he needs these super cute ones from Robeez. What do you think?

I’m pretty sure Simon would love us forever if we got him one of these cute swords from BirchLeaf Designs.  I can’t tell you how many times he’s gotten mad at me because I couldn’t get his sword all the way in his pants pocket or through his belt loop.

I am very, very picky with my cleaners around the house.  While I like to remain eco-friendly with as many household products as I can, there are not many out there that can truly claim to be environmentally safe.  A lot of the products on the market that claim to be “natural” contain fragrances and preservatives.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: that’s not “natural”.  Fragrance oils aren’t green!  Go for essential oils, people!

I digress.

I was asked to review and host a giveaway for Seventh Generation through MyBlogSpark, and they sent me a lot of stuff to try: disinfecting multi-surface cleaner, bathroom cleaner, wipes, a copy of The Conscious Kitchen, a cleaning caddy made from recycled plastic, and two rolls of 100% recycled, unbleached paper towels.

From Seventh Generation:

The disinfectants contain thymol, a component of the herb thyme, and can be used on hard surfaces including counter tops, plastic cutting boards, highchair trays as well as children´s toys. Best of all, they kill over 99.99 percent of germs* naturally and are effective against the Influenza A Virus, including H1N1.

Seventh Generation has partnered with eco-lifestyle consultant and author, Alexandra Zissu, whose new book, The Conscious Kitchen, discusses what´s good for your health, what´s good for the planet and what tastes great. Her book also includes great tips on maintaining a green and healthy kitchen, including:

• Change is Good–Choosing cleaning products without indoor air pollutants like volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, is a simple and effective way to reduce your indoor air pollution. If you´re not prepared to switch everything overnight, start by swapping out the one product you use the most, and moving forward from there.
• Think before you spray–Residues from cleaning products can last on a surface for longer than we we´d like to know and travel to areas that we sometimes don´t intend them to. Don´t contaminate your food by prepping it on a surface that may contain harsh chemical residues – rinse cleaning products from food preparation surfaces carefully or use botanical disinfecting cleaners that do not require a rinse step.
• Home is Where the Clean Is–Your standard cleaners are good for removing soils and dirt from kitchen surfaces, but to tackle germs you need a cleaner that is effective against microbes like bacteria and viruses. Many cleaners contain ingredients that have antimicrobial properties such as vinegar or hydrogen peroxide, but the germ killing power of these is not necessarily guaranteed. To be sure you are killing germs, use an EPA registered disinfectant. Seventh Generation tapped into the disinfecting power of the common garden herb thyme, to provide a disinfecting cleaner that kills germs* naturally.
• Make the Old New Again–Think twice about the items that you´re using to clean and dry your kitchen equipment and dishes. Use rags (like old t-shirts and washcloths) instead of paper towels. If you aren´t prepared to kick your paper towel addiction just yet, use only recycled versions that are unbleached or haven´t been whitened with chemicals containing chlorine and see how long you can make a roll last.
• The Writing is on the … Sponge–Be sure to read the fine print on sponges and only purchase those that do not contain antimicrobial pesticides. Remember to store sponges in a dry place and frequently clean them by popping plastic sponges wet in a microwave for two minutes or boiling sponges for three minutes in water.
• Mom Was Right, Wash Your Hands–Wash your hands with soap and water before and after prepping food, and always before eating. So much of what can be potentially harmful in a kitchen can be reduced by this simple act that doesn´t require any harsh chemicals whatsoever.

I have to tell you that the smell of these products is different.  They are very herbal and one of my kids did not like them.  In fact, he ran out of the room whenever we used the disinfecting wipes screaming, “OH GOD THEY STINK.”  So, it’s not for everyone.  I didn’t mind the smell so much.

Cleaning-wise, they did well.  I still have yet to find something that will clean my hard water stains that isn’t full of chemicals, but theSeventh Generation cleaners did fine for counters and sinks–surfaces that get wiped down regularly.

Win it!

One of my readers will receive a Seventh Generation Disinfecting Cleaning Kit with everything you see here:

To enter, leave me a comment telling me what you have done to green your cleaning routine.  Do you use eco-friendly cleaners?  What kind?  For additional entries, leave a comment for each of the following:

• Subscribe to any of my feeds
• “Like” my blog on facebook
• Share this giveaway with a friend using the “Share” button at the bottom of this post
• Tweet about this giveaway (unlimited)

I will close comments on May 16, 2010 and choose a winner shortly afterword.  U.S. only, please.

It’s sometimes hard to find developmentally-appropriate, educational toys that aren’t just blobs of wood or the same-old knitted plush.  What I love about the Dress Up Pirate from Growing Tree Toys is that it provides the kids not only with a fun pirate toy to play with but the opportunity to practice some really difficult fine motor skills.  Buttoning, shoe-tying, and snapping are really difficult for preschoolers.  A lot of clothing and shoes are more kid-friendly these days, so they don’t often get the practice they need.  This cute little guy has plenty of fun things to undo and redo.  Plus, I like his smile.

I suck at baking cakes.  Sometimes, I order cakes from a bakery just so I won’t go through the humiliation of offering my family poorly decorated cakes or cakes that I have pieced back together after accidentally dropping them.  The one time I tried to bake a cake from scratch, I couldn’t get it out of the pan and the entire thing ended up on the floor as a big pile of crumbs.  I cried.

If I opt for personally baking birthday cakes, I always get a cake mix.  I don’t have a favorite brand, so I usually go on whatever flavor the birthday boy requests.  Since it was Timothy’s first birthday, he couldn’t exactly choose his own cake.  After looking on the Betty Crocker website at the different cakes, I immediately knew that the Robot Cake would be ours.  I was going to make it work, by golly!

And I did.  I even tried to plan the entire Robots Rule Party, but there were many complications:

1. I went to a grocery store I’d never been to and couldn’t find everything I needed.
2. I got a flat tire on the day before the party, which was the day I planned to bake the cake.
3. I couldn’t find all of what I needed at the grocery store.

The robot cake called for black and blue food coloring with which to dye the icing a grey color.  Um, those colors aren’t available at your neighborhood Kroger.  I had to step on over to the Hobby Lobby and look in the cake decorating aisle in order to find some icing coloring.  It gave me a good excuse to get a fancy icing spatula, though, so I guess I can’t complain.

I never realized how much work goes into decorating a fancy cake!  I had to refrigerate the cake several times as called for in the instructions, so the assembly/decorating took a whole lot longer than I realized it would.  Of course, if one doesn’t spend five hours waiting on a new tire and alignment, I guess making the cake the day before wouldn’t seem so daunting.  I was able to bake the cake the night before, but all of the decorating took place the next morning.

Personally, I think my robot cake came out really well.  I didn’t drop it or mangle it, and I was so inspired by the first cake that I made Timothy a mini-cake from the leftovers.  He didn’t care too much for it, but we’re still working on the whole Solid Foods thing anyway.  In fact, he spit out what little cake we got in his mouth and didn’t really appreciate having icing all over his hands.

Case in point:

Now that you’ve read about our cake baking adventure, I’m happy to offer one of my readers a Betty Crocker “Bake Life Sweeter” Prize Pack (includes everything seen in the picture below)!

To enter, leave me a comment telling me which Betty Crocker cake you’d like to make.  Visit BettyCrocker.com to see all the different cake ideas.  For additional entries, leave me a comment for each of the following:

• Subscribe to any of my feeds (current subscribers count)
• Become a fan of Suzy Q Homemaker on facebook
• Share this giveaway with a friend
• Tweet about this giveaway

I will close comments and choose a winner on May 2, 2010.  U.S. only, please.

Oh, how I wish I could have had this baby bath tub when Timothy was small enough to fit in the sink.  The kind folks at Puj Tub sent us one to try, but by then Timothy was WAY too big to fit in it.  So, I passed it along to a friend who had a baby just a bit smaller than Timothy and then to another friend with a newborn.

Beth and her baby Emmy:

I knew that Beth’s family traveled a lot, so I knew that the Puj Tub might interest them.  After all, it’s a portable baby bath tub that’s specially designed to fit in a variety of sink sizes.  Beth said that they really liked it, but wished that it could be bigger.  Emmy was only a bit smaller than Timothy at the time (I think about the size of a 5-month-old?).

From Erica and her baby Emma:

I really like:

• the soft and smooth texture
• the ability to fit into the sink easily
• the fact that it can fold/unfold easily for use and storage
• the tub stays in its usable postition with the maganets (doesnt fall open with pressure
• The only limitation is the capacity. However, I don’t thnk that it is a limitation of the Puj Tub so much as it is of the sink size.

I would recommend it for use with small infants.

There is nothing that I can see about the tub that would need to be changed.  Sometimes I wish for a bigger sink becuase Robert always gets water on the floor through the drain hole!

The entire design of the Puj Tub is genius in my opinion.  I had fun messing around with it while we had it and I was really amazed at how easily it snapped together.  Even though I never got to try it with a baby, I would definitely recommend it to other moms.

Check out the Puj Tub for yourself at Puj’s new website for baby bath tubs!

Puj Tub provided for review.