2009 August | She Scribes

BACK TO SCHOOL: Loveable Labels

August 31, 2009 By Kimberly

Labels! Labels! Labels! When it comes to school supplies you MUST make sure to label EVERYTHING. I cannot tell you how many times my kid’s school supplies magically grow legs and walk away… right into someone else’s desk!

I am a huge fan of labeling everything. Some day I hope to get one of those label makers. I think I’d label EVERYTHING in our home! I can’t wait to label the cabinets so we all know where the soups go and the veggies go and so forth.

My kids know how important it is to label everything too. They have had lunchboxes “disappear” as well as sweat jackets, coats, binders, rulers, you name it! As you know these things are expensive to replace too.

Lovable Labels (http://www.loveablelabels.com/) offers the cutest selection of labels and tags for all your kid’s needs. My “back to school MUST HAVE” is the Lovable Labels Mega School Pack. It contains all the labels you’ll need to make sure your child goes off to school with all their things properly labeled.

Lovable Labels Mega School Pack comes with…

- 15 regular rectangle labels

- 60 slimline labels

- 16 shoe labels

- 12 large clothing dots

- 12 medium clothing dots

- 24 mini clothing dots

- 2 mini metal “dog tags”

- 5 binder stickers

If you have more then one child you can do what we did and just order our last name. Personally I’m not very keen on having first and last names on things to begin with. The LAST thing you want it a predator seeing your child’s first and last name on something (book, shirt, jewelry…). So sticking with the last name is fine with me. We also ordered red since it was “gender neutral”.

Lovable Labels has adorable little designs you can have on the labels too. We opted to go without a design since we were keeping them gender neutral. They offer bugs, hearts, animals, sports and more.

The clothing dots are GREAT for putting inside coats, sweat jackets, gloves and other things your child wears. Trust me, after having my kids lose coats and sweat jackets you’ll want to make sure they are labeled. The clothing dots are also washer and dryer safe. They are NOT meant for the fabrics but rather you stick them on the size tags.

The shoe labels are great if you have a student who needs to change their shoes for gym.

My favorites are the slimline labels. They are great for pens, pencils, rulers and to indiscreetly label things. Ugh! There is nothing more frustrating then spending $$$ on pens and pencils and have them “disappear”. With the slimline labels your child will know who has “sticky fingers” and swiped their pen or pencil.

I am loving the mini “dog tags”. They are on my kid’s backpacks. My daughter has an all black backpack too which could be easily confused with someone else’s. With the mini dog tag she’ll know which backpack is hers. They are also great for lunch boxes and totes.

Honestly there are more labels in the Mega School Pack then we’ll need for two kids for one school year so I know we’ll have plenty on hand for next school year too. I love that because from an economic standpoint it’s a wise “investment”.

Lovable Labels also makes stationary, cards, safety products and other great products. They also offer products for fundraiser too!

The Mega School Pack is available until September 30, 2009. Hurry!

To learn more please visit http://www.loveablelabels.ca/. (it’s .ca, not .com because they are in Canada but they do orders for the US and Canada).

* We recieved labels free to do this review. There was no other compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.

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BACK TO SCHOOL: Yummy JELL-O & Giveaway

August 30, 2009 By Kimberly

JELL-O…oh so yummy!

After my frustrating day (see previous posts) and after our delicious dinner (also see previous post) we ended the day with parfaits made with JELL-O. YUMMY!

I love JELL-O. Seriously, it’s delicious, easy to make, inexpensive, low in calories, fun to eat. It’s like the perfect snack food or dessert.

I made parfaits using Lime and Strawberry JELL-O. My kids thought it was funny because it looked like a Christmas treat. I didn’t think about it at the time. But they were right. We topped it off with Cool Whip and they joked it was “snow”. We even topped them off with a few sprinkles for Magnolia Bakery.

I was thinking about a fun way to start back to school. Why not make some JELL-O in a shallow pan and use cookie cutters in alphabet shapes and/or number shapes. Imagine how cute that would be to serve your child a plate of JELL-O alphabet letters in honor of going back to school. Or perhaps you have a child who is starting Kindergarten. What a fun treat that would be. Who knew JELL-O could be used for learning too.

If you have every letter of the alphabet your child can make their own name out of JELL-O and then eat it when they are done.

My kids are older so I don’t think the letters & number would work but I’m going to see what other cookie cutter shapes I have so I can make them something fun too in honor of school.

I give my kids JELL-O often. I make it and cut it up into cubes and then put some in a reusable container and send it to school with them. It handles well in the lunchbox. It’s also a much healthier option then chips and cookies.

JELL-O is also very inexpensive. If you think about how much a package of cookies cost and weigh that expense with a few boxes of JELL-O it’s a “no-brainer” which is the better, more affordable option.

Now that I think about it cutting JELL-O with different cookie cutter shapes could be fun! Maybe you can cut out an “A” if you student got an “A” on an important test? Or you can can cut out holiday shapes (pumpkins, bats, turkey, snowman, heart…). What a fun idea!

I’d love to give one lucky She Scribes readers 5 boxes of JELL-O. That way you can make some up for a healthy school treat or a healthy after school snack for your family.

To enter please comment on your favorite thing to make with JELL-O. Please don’t say “JELL-O shots”. Ha Ha.

For extra entries you can do any or all of the following. Please be sure to leave a separate comment for each you have done.

- Subscribe and/or Follow She Scribes. Both subscription and following options are found on the right side bar.

- Blog about this review/giveaway and please link back to this post. Please provide the URL of the post.

- Tweet about this on Twitter and please include @She_Scribes in the tweet so I can see it too.

You are also welcome to promote this giveaway in other ways (Facebook, Digg, Technorati…) for an extra entry. Please be sure to tell me what you did and provide a URL is possible.

This giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry) and will end on September 14, 2009 at 11:59 PM (EST). The winner will be chosen at random using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be contacted by e-mail and will have three days to reply with a name and mailing address (no PO Box) or a new winner will be chosen.

Please be sure to check out all the other great giveaways currently available on the right side bar under “Win It”.

*I received a couple of boxes free. I also purchase JELL-O on a regular basis. The opinions expressed are my own.

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Delicae Gourmet Saved the Day!

August 30, 2009 By Kimberly

After a VERY frustrating back to school supply shopping that we had earlier today (read previous post) the LAST thing I wanted to worry about was dinner. I had a feeling it was going to be one of THOSE days to I had the forethought to put a beautiful pot roast I picked up last week into the crock pot earlier in the day. After a long, frustrating day the last thing I wanted to do was cook.

I love my crock pot. I really don’t use it as much as I should. I mostly use it to make stews, pot roast and salsa chicken. There are so many other delicious things you can make in a crock pot.

There is a great web site called Delicae Gourmet that offers “starter kits” to make mouth-watering meals. Many of the ingredients you need are included in the “kit”. The only thing you need is some meat or a few things that you’d probably normally have in your pantry to begin with.

I made our pot roast with Old Fashioned Pot Roast from Delicae Gourmet. The only extras I needed was the meat (of course), tomato sauce, low sodium beef broth (both of which I always have in my pantry) and a can of tomatoes which I omitted since we’re not huge fans of tomatoes. Instead I added in a couple of cans of potatoes. That worked great! The potatoes picked up the seasonings in the Old Fashioned Pot Roast mix and they tasted delicious. All I need to make was some steamed broccoli which took mere minutes and dinner was ready.

I have tried a few different products from Delicae Gourmet and I am very pleased with all of them. I also tried Southern Italian Pasta e Fagioli which turned out great! My mother in law was a great cook (also Italian) and I so miss her Pasta e Fagioli soup. The soup “kit” from Delicae Gourmet, although not exactly like my mother in law’s soup, still turned out very good. It was very hearty and one bowl was enough to fill me up. We had plenty so we had some for lunch the next day.

We’ve also tried the Country Harvest Corn Chowder. We have never had Corn Chowder before, but my husband LOVES cream corn, which is one of the pantry staples you need for the recipe along with cream of mushroom soup (I used cream of chicken, my husband doesn’t like mushrooms). It was SO GOOD! I made it one night and we had some grilled cheese sandwiches to go with it. The kids loved it too. My kids are super picky too.

What I love about the Delicae Gourmet “kits” is that they contain most of everything you need and anything extra most people have on hand in their fridge or pantry. So they are great to have on hand for those nights you don’t feel like cooking or you don’t have time to cook. Since you can make these recipes in your crock pot you can put all the ingredients and the mix in the crock pot before you leave and when you come home dinner is ready to be served. With school starting up again I’m sure plenty of families are going to need to rely on quick and easy meals.

The Delicae Gourmet dinner kits are reasonably priced at $5.95 and the soups are priced at $6.15. The soups also serve about 8-11 people so you can really get a lot of “mileage” (leftovers) out of each one too.

To learn more about Delicae Gourmet’s Dinner and Soup “kits” you can visit www.shopdelicae.com.

Delicae Gourmet also offers a variety of other great products.

The lovely people at Delicae Gourmet would like to offer one lucky She Scribes reader a $25 gift certificate to their store. Thank you Delicae Gourmet!

To enter please visit Delicae Gourmet at www.ShopDelicae.com, look around and then come back here and comment on what you would like to buy with your $25 gift card. Don’t worry, if you are the winner you can change your mind.

For extra entries you can do any or all of the following. Just before to leave a separate comment for each that you have done.

- Subscribe and/or Follow She Scribes. Subscription and Following options are found on the right side bar.

- Blog about this review/giveaway and please link back to both this post and Delicae Gourmet (www.ShopDelicae.com). Please provide the URL of the post.

- Tweet about this on Twitter and please include @She_Scribes in the post so I can see it too.

- Promote this review/giveaway in other ways (Facebook, Digg, Technorati…). Just be sure to tell me what you did and if possible please include a URL or name.

This giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry) and will end on September 14, 2009 at 11:59 PM (EST). The winner will be selected at random using a random number generator from all eligible entries. The winner will be contacted by e-mail and will have three days to reply with their name and address (no PO BOX) or a new winner will be chosen.

Don’t forget to check out the other great giveaways currently available on the right side bar under “Win It”.

* I received sample products free to do this review. I was not compenstated in any other way. The opinions expressed are my own.

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BACK TO SCHOOL: Shopping Frustration & TI-Nspire™ Review

August 30, 2009 By Kimberly

Earlier this afternoon we went through all the school supplies we had purchased already and went through the kid’s lists of supplies and compiled a “shopping list” of things we still have to get. Like fools we headed to Walmart. Walmart…on a Sunday afternoon right before the start of school. NOT a bright move on our part.

Walmart was a MAD HOUSE! Not only that all the school supplies were all over the place – literally! Some supplies were found in the middle of the store and others in the seasonal section.

Our list consisted of six 1.5″ 3 ring binders. For my son the teachers INSISTED on one in each color…red, black, green and blue. ???!!! All we found were 2″ white ones. Whatever happened to writing the subject in marker on the spin of the binder? Do you know how IMPOSSIBLE it is to find 1.5″ binders in those colors?

Walmart didn’t have lunchboxes, or marble composition books either. All we had in our shopping cart was markers, printer paper and some scrunchies I picked up for my hair. After about an hour searching all over for the supplies we needed we just left. Literally just left the cart where it was and got back in the car.

GRRR!!!

Next we headed over to Target. DUMB MISTAKE! Again, it’s a Sunday afternoon right before the start of school. It wasn’t as crazy as Walmart was, but it was packed none the less. Target also did not have anything on our list. INSANE!

So here I am online at Staples with a shopping cart filled with things like red, black, blue and green 1.5″ binders.

Seriously… I think these “rules” for school supplies are ridiculous! I can understand if having specific colored supplies for each subject might be good for younger kids, but mine are in middle school. I’d like to think in middle school kids can read “Science” written on the side of a binder and know it’s for the Science class.

What are the teachers going to do? Give a child a bad grade if he/she doesn’t have four different colored binders? Or what about 2″ binders? What if we bought our son 2″ binders? Is he suddenly going to be a “bad student” because we can’t find all these darn colored 1.5″ binders? It’s ridiculous!!! Seriously ridiculous!!!

So… enough of my rant. I’m step down off my soap box now.

The only highlight to our back to school supplies is our Texas Instruments
TI-Nspire™ calculator. OH MY! This is like the kind of calculators! I swear, I wouldn’t be surprised if the calculator starts talking to me and I can prepare dinner ala “The Jetsons” with a push of a button. Talk about high-tech. WOW!

The Texas Instruments TI-Nspire™ calculator does it all. I mean ALL! I’m STILL learning about it. You know the calculator has a lot to offer when you can purchase a “Dummy” book for it.

We received the TI-Nspire™ to review and I’m very happy we did. It just so happens that another Texas Instruments Scientific Calculator is on the back to school supply list. Forget that one. The TI-Nspire™ is the only calculator my kids will need from middle school through college. If you are going to invest in a quality calculator that will carry your child through the years this is certainly THE calculator to have. It’s ideal for Pre-Algebra, Algebra 1 & 2, Geometry, Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, Calculus, Statistics, College Math, Business, Finance and Biology. WOW!

To be honest the TI-Nspire™ is a bit (OK, A LOT) intimidating at first. There are so many buttons! There are even two different “face” pieces you can use depending on what you need it for. One of the face plates has a circular control piece on it, similar to an iPod. My kids loved that.

The TI-Nspire™ has a more then generous size screen. I really didn’t see why such a large screen was needed but once you start dabbling in the charts and graphs you’ll see why.

The TI-Nspire™ helps students with a regular calculator mode that supports algebraic representations. It also helps with graphs, lists, geometry, spreadsheets and notes. There is nothing this calculator can’t help with. I don’t even think referring to it as a calculator seems appropriate. It’s the calculator of the future.

As with any product the TI-Nspire™ did come with the necessary product information and instructions. I can tell you from experience it was easier said then done to follow along. Even my computer tech husband was left scratching his head a few times. THANKFULLY we were also send the TI-Nspire™ for Dummies book. If you are considering getting the TI-Nspire™ do yourself a favor and pick up the TI-Nspire™ for Dummies book as well. The book was a HUGE help. I recommend reading the book first and then go back to the beginning and follow along with the TI-Nspire™. It made it a lot easier to understand when we did it that way.

My husband and I are horrible when it comes to math. Geometry, Algebra… we’re clueless. So when we were playing around with the various functions of the TI-Nspire™ we weren’t sure if we were doing things right. Thankfully my daughter who is going into 7th grade and who is good at math took the reins a few times and began doing all these wild and crazy things with the TI-Nspire™. To HER it made sense. To us we were clueless.

I think we will be learning how to work the TI-Nspire™ for many months to come.

I’m seriously blown away by the power of the TI-Nspire™ and all it can do. The graphics and mathematical computations it does right on the screen is amazing. The display is crystal clear so you can easily read all the numbers.

Overall I’m giving the TI-Nspire™ two thumbs up. There are many “Pros” about the unit. The only “Cons” for me is the price ($149.99), which might not see “doable” for many people. Although this would be the only calculator your student will need all through school and college, so it’s a great investment. It’s even permitted to use on the SAT, ACT, and other college entrance exams.

Another “Con” is that it’s difficult to understand and get used to. Thankfully the book was a huge help. It’s even harder when you are not good at math to begin with and you are not sure what you are doing.

To learn more about the TI-Nspire™ you can visit this link,
http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/productDetail/us_nspire.html?bid=5.

The TI-Nspire™ is sold in many retail locations. I saw it at Walmart this afternoon ($149.99). I also found it on Amazon for $140.92.

I strongly suggest purchasing the “Dummy” book. I found that a lot easier to understand then the included instructions. You can learn more about the Dummy book here,
http://education.ti.com/educationportal/sites/US/nonProductSingle/supplemental_inter_Wiley.html

* I received this product free to review. There was no other compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.

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Mighty Mend It

August 30, 2009 By Kimberly

Shh…do you want to know a secret? I’m not very handy when it comes to things like sewing. Seriously, I can’t even sew on a button. My husband however can. He had to take Home Economics in school and they taught them to sew. He still remembers how to do it and does a pretty good job if I do say so. THANKFULLY my daughter takes after my husband, not me. She actually knows how to sew too. But sometimes you can’t just sew something like you would normally with a needle and thread.

I’m sure many readers have seen the product Mighty Mend It. It was marketed by the late Billy Mays. Mighty Mend It is one of those “As Seen on TV” type products.

Admittedly I am the biggest sceptic when it comes to those infomercials you see on TV. A lot of the time I think it’s all just “bells and whistles” that don’t actually deliver what they promise when you shell out the money to purchase the product. However I can say that there are several TV products that we have purchased that we LOVE and are very pleased with. Many of them actually do what they claim to do. You’ll still find a dud or two along the way, but for the most part the things you see on TV genuinely do as they say they will.

Might Mend It was no exception. I was a bit “iffy” on whether or not it would work, but I knew I had to try it out for myself to come up with my final conclusion.

Mighty Mend It reminds me of a clear, liquid glue. That is essentially what it is…glue. But it’s glue that works on fabrics, lace, felt, wood, suede, curtains, and stuffed animals, to name a few.

My first attempt with Mighty Mend It was on a shirt where the seam was ripping along the shoulder. I followed the directions to a “T”. It did mend it, but it was a bit messy looking and it was very obvious that I had done something (glued) the seam. Sigh…

I never base my reviews on just one attempt with something like this so I tried again. This time I fixed part of a jean hem that was coming undone. Ta da! The Mighty Mend It worked! Not only did I fix it but you couldn’t see what I did either.

Ok… so now I was on a roll.

I fixed the hem on our curtains. The hem has been coming undone for a while now (compliments of the cats). I was just too lazy to take the curtain down to attempt to sew it. Might Mend It fixed it for me. Yeah! The only thing I had to do was take the scissors and cut off a few of the frayed ends so that it didn’t tempt the cat to go at them again.

Since then we have used Mighty Mend It on a few things around the house. My daughter used the “rhinestones” that came with the Mighty Mend It to decorate her backpack and put a few on a pair of shorts that she has. The stones are on there pretty good. I’m sure if you picked at them you might pull them off but for normal “wear and tear” I don’t see them coming off.

The Mighty Mend It dried clear and seems to be holding up well in the wash. You can wear whatever you mend about 2 hours later but you have to wait a full 24 hours before you can wash it.

I think the reason why my first attempt failed is because I used too much of the Mighty Mend It. A little goes a long way. You really don’t need much of it. It also doesn’t stick to your fingers like crazy glue does.

I know there are plenty of things around my home that can use some “mending”. It’s a very handy thing to have around your home.

I’m giving Mighty Mend It a two thumbs up. It does what it claims to do and it really does work. I don’t think it will replace actually sewing things, but it’s certainly great in a pinch or for things that might be a bit too hard or inconvenient to sew.

To learn more about Mighty Mend It you can visit the official site at www.MightyMendIt.com.

Mighty Mend It sold at many retail locations.

*I received a sample of this product free to do this review. There was no other compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.

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Family Values Cinema

August 29, 2009 By Kimberly

Here’s a really interesting program that I thought my She Scribes readers might be interested. It’s a program called Family Values Cinema. It’s a monthly subscription service that delivers “Family Friendly” movies.

Here is how it works.

As a member of Family Values Cinema you will receive each month a movie that has been reviewed and evaluated by a team of moms known as the National Board of Mothers and the Dove Foundation to ensure that it’s an acceptable movie for the whole family to watch. That means your five year old can watch and enjoy the movie as well as your 16 year old. You won’t have to worry about nudity, bad language or excess violence.

With each movie you receive you will also get a family discussion guide to help facilitate a family conversations. The discusses are not just about the movie’s positive messages, but also about each other, our families, friends and neighbors. Personally I think that many families are lacking a very important component – an open line of communication. Discussions like these could lead to even more discussions.

As part of the Family Values Cinema membership you also get a activity that the whole family can enjoy. I would assume it might be based upon the theme of the movie. That is just my guess.

You will also receive a recipe from Auntie’s Kitchen .

I have not tried the service as of yet but I’ll get getting next month’s movie package. I’ll certainly post my review about it and let you all know what it’s like.

My “game plan” is to create a special “Family Movie Night” each month (at least once a month). I’d like to play a couple of board games after dinner one night (like a Saturday night – homework permitting of course). After the games we can make the recipe that comes with the movie to enjoy with the movie (if it’s a snack). Then we can watch the movie, utilize the discussion prompts and then do the activity. I think that will be a lot of fun and a great way to end the night.

We do have “Family Movie Night” but not as often as I would like. I also think my kids will be excited to see what movie they will get (it’s a surprise, you don’t know what you’ll get).

Family Values Cinema offers both top theatrical releases. They also offer independent films I have never heard of.

I think it’s worth checking out. Best of all you KEEP the movie. It’s not like Netflix where you have to send it back.

You won’t get the case like you get in the store. You just get the disc (like you get from Netflix). When you become a member (not the free trial) they will send you a special case that holds 12 DVD’s and the discussion guides, as picutred below.

The cost for membership is $9.95 plus shipping and handling (I believe shipping is $3.95 US, $4.95 in Canada).

Family Values Cinema has a FREE trial offer. You can get the next month’s movie selection, the discussion guide, recipe and activity for just the cost of shipping and handling ($3.95 US, $4.95 Canada). You also get to keep the movie and you can cancel if you are not happy with the program. I figure for such a nominal fee it’s worth checking out.

To learn more about Family Values Cinema you can visit the web site http://www.familyvaluescinema.com/. Or click on the little logo below or on the left side bar.

Look for my review of the service, and maybe even the movie we received, next month.