whoo's coming for Halloween?

One of the best things that happen every Halloween night after trick or treating is the big candy swap. Everyone empties their bags, the grown-ups sort, and the kids swap.While I'm a sucker for caramels and flavoured tootsie rolls and Cortland apples (and will steal those if I can!), the two monsters are wildly different in which treats are their favorites. Cass tends to like chocolate (we raised him right) and those peanut butter toffees while Rosey likes the colorful stuff - candy corn, Smarties, Skittles, jellybeans. And while neither of my two has peanut allergies (we're lucky that way) they do have friends that are, and who knows who will come on our door looking for treats?

So we've found a good choice.  Gummy candy. In sweets, sours, and tangies. And who doesn't appreciate a Big Green Thumb or Red Hot Lips on Halloween?

Allan Candy, made in Canada.

This Halloween, we're stocking up on Intense Jubes & Jellies, Big Foot, Sour Big Foot, Green Thumbs, Hot Lips, Sour Watermelon Slices, Peach Slices, Sour Cherry Slices, Tangy Wild Strawberries and Sour Grape Slices.





for more than 25 years.
-       Peanut Free, individually wrapped candies that are available for Halloween are:
o       Allan Intense Jubes & Jellies – delivering an intense sour flavor and a soft & chewy bite.
o       Allan Chewy Rascalz – these childhood favourites will keep your taste buds happy!  Packed in one bag, and of course, peanut free – you’ll find Big Foot, Sour Big Foot, Green Thumbs and Hot Lips!
o       Allan Fruit Buddies - offering a variety of fruit flavoured candies that are also peanut free! Indulge in 5 great fruit flavours: Sour Watermelon Slices, Peach Slices, Sour Cherry Slices, Tangy Wild Strawberries and Sour Grape Slices.

We're all excited for Halloween. Aren't you?



Disclosure – I am participating in the Allan Candy Company program by Mom Central Canada.  I received compensation for my participation in this campaign.  The opinions on this blog are my own.

be positive in small ways to delve big rewards

Energizer has a great new campaign, with the premise that if every person did something little for the environment, together we would reap huge benefits. It makes sense. If I'm not using as much hot water, there's energy left over for you.

Together, we can make this a better place for both of us.

Energizer Canada and Evergreen (the school yard is no longer concrete commercial people) are working hand in hand to make cities more liveable. Energizer has contributed $100,000 to Evergreen, and for each pledge that is made under this iniatative, will donate a dollar more. That's not chump change (for change!)

Want to help create a more sustainable future by pledging your support through five kind acts? Visit here.

I'll go first, shall I? I'm making a pledge with Energizer to:

1. Use less plastic and more paper. Let's bring back the paper grocery bag! They biodegrade instead of just falling to smaller and smaller pellets. Plastic, while very convenient and all-pervasive, isn't the best thing for our world.

2. Use more things twice. Yes, that odd-shaped jar is headed for the recycle bin, but maybe if we gave it a nice coat of blue-white paint, it would look lovely as a vase in the upstairs hallway. That bread that was going into the compost? We should take a walk down to the park and feed the ducks.

3. Do chores at night. The kids go to bed - there's no reason I can't toss in a load of laundry that will churn on while we're all sleeping. Less energy, too, if I use cold water and don't overwhelm the washer with giant loads.

4.Write more letters. Real letters, not just email. This would delight my relatives that aren't email comfortable, and getting a letter in the mail is really such a treat.

5. Turn lights off. I think sometimes that should be engraved on my forehead. Did you turn the light off? It's deeply rooted in me, my dislike of giving the power company extra money.

You can submit your own positive acts at the Now That's Positive Energy website.

Go, please, and look at all the ideas that other people have. Ways we can change our lives for the better, a little bit at a time.  Now that's Goooood Energy.

Disclosure – I am participating in the Energizer Canada & Evergreen “Do Something Little, Help Something Big” program by Mom Central Canada on behalf of Energizer Canada & Evergreen. I received compensation as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Heart for Haiti

It was a year ago. Already a year ago.

Do you remember where you were when you heard about the devastation that happened in Haiti?

Canada sent help. We sent lots of help. But not enough.

And then we couldn't shield our children any more, and we couldn't figure out how to tell them. But when they found out, they showed us unexpected beauty.

The world shuddered in recognition of how quickly a life could change and tried to extend a hand of compassion.

It's a year later now, and Haiti is still recovering. We're still discovering new ways and new opportunities to help, and discovering things about each other we never realized. Like how one person can make a difference. Or how simple, silly things like having a toothbrush and some candies in a shoebox can make a destitute child grin.

We're also discovering that joy lives on in the souls of Haitian artisans and craftsmen. That even the stunning blows of the last year haven't erased the colour that they fill their day-to-day lives with.

Look at these:

The Heart Of Haiti store is full of gorgeous crafts like these. Heart of Haiti was set up to bring art from Haiti and make it available to everyone - artists receive 22% of revenues, enabling them to make money in an area of the world where little is left to make a living with.

One more thing we can do to bring joy back to Haiti. One more thing.






I was selected for this very special “CleverHaiti” opportunity by Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity. All opinions are my own.

Quaker journey

Last year my husband and I resolved to live a healthier lifestyle.

And, well, we do. But there's always room for improvement! I know darn well  that while we make our own bread, our own laundry soap, compost and recycle religiously and heat with wood that we cut off our own land, we're still not living as earth-friendly and healthy as I would like. I'd love to introduce my children to a more farm-based and agriculturally driven life, but I've proved quite spectacularly that I cannot garden worth a hill of beans (yes, pun intended) and my husband falls silent when I talk about getting a few hens.

Y'know, for eggs.

He knows me well enough, though, to know that if he agreed to a couple of chickens, it wouldn't be long before I'd have sheep and a couple of turkeys. Or maybe a mule. Ooh, a mule!

Reining myself in is always a problem.

Maybe the ticket is starting small. Small changes. Like serving oatmeal more. The kids already like it, and it's healthy and satisfying on a cold morning.

Lynn from Walking With Scissors has been blogging over at quakerjourney.ca, talking about simple changes her family is making to live a healthier lifestyle. And you can win prizes by reading her stories and commenting on them!

Easy-peasy. Like small changes. Small changes that can change everything.




Disclosure: I am participating in the Quaker Journey to Wellness program by Mom Central on behalf of Pepsi Co. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Shutterfly - making memories!

Shutterfly is offering bloggers an amazing offer – 50 free photo cards!




And I have a confession to make – I am the world’s WORST when it comes to sending out Christmas cards. Procrastinator extraordinaire. I usually end up addressing them around the twentieth, swearing to myself that this year will NOT be a repeat of last years fiasco, and then they hang out in my car until…oh, the middle of January? And then the holidays are over and I realize I’ve been a douchebag again. But these cards are going to revolutionize my tardy habits, because they’re A) GORGEOUS – not your usual cards at all, and B) my kids will love them and bug me until I actually MAIL them.

So I'm using a cute product, and kid nagging to get me to my goal. Hmph. Well, if it works....

And LOOK at these!

How cute! Not the usual Christmas cards at all.

And Shutterfly also does neat things like baby announcements  and photo calendars - really, they'd be great for Christmas presents too! Really, go check them out! Some gorgoeus, not-forgettable-on-the-car-seat designs!



Disclosure - I signed up for a Shutterfly promotion and was compensated with 50 free holiday cards. All opinions are my own.

Cookies to lose weight?

 Smart for Life the "Eat Cookies. Lose Weight." program from television fame? I tried it last week.

Well, I should be more specific. I received a box of the different products to try out, with the specification that I would blog about my experience.

My box included:
2 four packs of underWAY, a supplement drink infused with special HeroFiber and heart-healthy vitamins. It works naturally to suppress your appetite and quench your thirst. The two flavours I received were acai-pomegranate and grape. The acai-pomegranate was odd, almost fakey-flavoured, but the grape, if ice-cold, was yummy. Grown-up (and good for you!) grape drink!

Cookies: Boxes of chocolate-chip and oatmeal-raisin. The chocolate-chip was good with a carob-y flavour. The oatmeal-raisin was...interesting, but didn't pass muster. A bit too dry and chalky and well, diet-ish!


Cupcakes: Carrot and double-chocolate. The carrot was great! Light, not-too-sweet, and had a vague flavour of almonds, which I enjoyed tremendously. The chocolate was good - very good at first bite, but there was an odd after-taste that lingered, and I found myself not wanting to finish the whole thing.


Soup: Mama's Chicken Noodle. This was great stuff. Packaged so I just needed to add boiling water, the broth was thick and full of flavour, and there were lots of veggies and noodles. Yum! I would definitely enjoy that at lunch everyday!

Cereal: Chocolate Berry Crunch. This was good, with a nice deep chocolate flavour and whole dried raspberries. I really liked that it didn't look particularly diet, with the bright berries and the dark cereal. It looked like a treat.

Bagel: I didn't eat this.

Crunch: This was a bag of nugget-like bits, probably good for people who get muffin or pastry cravings. My kids (who espied the chocolate stuff, and who could blame them??) were divided on these - my daughter liked them, but my son was disappointed that they didn't taste like the cupcakes.


Smart for Life programs involve meal replacement foods, such has cookies, cupcakes, shakes, cereals, bagels that help to control hunger while providing you with proper nutrition and quick, safe weight loss goal results.

Each Smart for Life cookie are made with extracts from all-natural ingredients including organic fruits, vegetables, wheat, milk and eggs. The program requires you to eat 6 cookies a day, drink 8 glasses water a day and a small dinner. For more information, check out the Smart for Life website.

You can learn more about Smart for Life and underWAY products, at www.smartforlife.com and www.under-way.com.

Would you like to try it?
You could win a case of underWAY

If you like to enter to win a case of underWAY to try, please leave a comment sharing "why you’d love to try underWAY and/or Smart for Life products."

I will select 10 lucky winners on August 4th.

Comments will close at midnight. Contest is open to Canadians only. (Sorry, Americans!) And you may enter the contest on multiple blogs but are only eligible to win once as part of the underWAY blog tour contest.



Disclosure - I am participating in the underWAY program by Mom Central on behalf of Better Health Beverage, LLC. I received a gift card as a thank you for my participation. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Harumika

My son was pee-green when the box came, and didn't even lose interest when we slipped off the wrapping to reveal a headless dress dummy form and bits and slips of fabric.*


Rosey was too busy oohing and aahing over the silky, colourful squares to even shove his hand away. 'It's mine', she informed him. 'Mama got it for me.' Then she sat down and handed the body over my way, ready to learn how it worked.

I'd been sent a Harumika Starter Kit for her to explore, and she was eager to figure this out. She'd seen the commercials, of course, so using the stylus tool to tuck the edges of the fabrics around the bodice and using the stickers to create many, many different outfits was easy for her to figure out.

Now, Rosey isn't really a fashionable child.  I like to think I dress her well, and every once in awhile she'll ask for something with a flower on it, or lip-gloss, but she's never been one of those kids with a closet-ful of princess dresses and earrings in every colour.

And she still isn't, but this toy remains one of her favourites. She loves mixing the fabrics, creating new outfits, making choices. I can give her this and a few new scraps of fabric and she's off for at least an hour.

And then just yesterday she asked me if her nightgown matched her blanket.

Y'know, the important style questions.

*I did ask him about this later. Turns out he thought it was something Star-Wars related - The Dressing of the Clones, perhaps?? - and wanted to see if the colourful pieces would fit his Star Wars things.

Disclosure: I was sent a Harumika Starter Kit, with the expectation that I would blog about my experiences with it, good or bad. I was not otherwise compensated for this post.