I recently picked up this book and while I’m not finished with it yet, I am loving it. The full title is, “Steady Days: A Journey Toward Intentional, Professional Motherhood” by Jamie Martin. Here are a few reasons why I am enjoying it:

1. It is short and efficient. In this stage of my life, finishing a book is a big deal. I love that this book isn’t wordy. Since my time to read is short and comes in spurts its nice to be able to read for just 5 minutes and get lots of good ideas. Each chapter is only about a page long, chapters I can actually finish between chasing kids.

2. Easy, practical tips. The author teaches how to provide a more calm and relaxing daily routine for your home through various organizational goals. She is not an idealist, but is practical in her teaching and tips.

3. It’s encouraging! There is no guilt passed on in this book. Ever mom has to find their own routine and way of doing things. However, it is so encouraging to hear other’s ideas and suggestions. I find it very encouraging to read about ways to offer more order and peace to my day through very simple steps.

So if you have an extra ten bucks, pick up a copy of this book. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I am. You can also follow this author on her blog.

Recently in a Love It post somebody asked me if I get paid to tell you about products that I love. This is a great question and got me thinking about my reasons for promoting products on my blog.

The answer is no, I don’t get paid. Though to be honest at first my hope was that eventually I would. Now, however I’ve changed my mind . If you’re like me maybe you’ve wondered how much magazines or popular blogs get paid to feature certain brands and products in their What’s New, or What’s Great sections. Do the authors and editors really love that brand of peanut butter and that face wash, or are they just trying to keep their budgets in the black? Getting paid by a company to review their product tends to muddy the waters of integrity, even if intentions are good.

Have you ever found an obscure or new product that you love only to see it discontinued a few months down the road? I hate that! Sometimes great products don’t make it simply because they are new and don’t get a chance to establish themselves in the consumer market. I think that word of mouth, from friend to friend, mother to daughter, sister to sister, etc. is the best (and most trustworthy) form of advertising. I’ll try something my housemate or mom likes in an instant, but a new product I see on in a magazine or ona billboard, I’m more wary of.

So there are my two reasons friends. One, I want to tell you about the items I REALLY do love. I promise that if I post it, its because I think the item is great and I want to share it with you. Secondly I want these items to stick around. I had a scare with my favorite chocolate milk. For weeks I couldn’t find it in any of our local grocery stores. I was panicked, worried that they weren’t making it any more. Much to my relief, a few weeks later it appeared again. So, my hope is that by sharing with you about these items you will go try them, fall in love with them too and then call your friends and tell them too. Then we won’t have to worry about chemical free cleaning products, fat free chocolate milk, or incredibly yummy chips disappearing from our grocery store shelves! 🙂

Let me introduce you to a lovely lunch guest. Friends, meet Multigrain Chip, MC for short. MC, meet my hungry friends. I met MC a couple years ago at a sample table in Costco. It was love at first taste and she’s been a faithful, filling and healthy snack or companion to a turkey sandwich many a times. She is beautiful and oh so healthy with all those yummy seeds (flax, sunflower, and sesame) and she doesn’t have any gluten or trans-fat.

Oh, and here’s her little sister, whom I just met  a couple days ago but am already becoming quite fond of, Sweet Potato Chip. Sweetie for short. She is divine with her thin slices and oh so slightly salty, slightly sweet taste.

You should invite them to join you for dinner or lunch sometime. I’m sure you’ll find them as enjoyable as I have. 🙂

SimpleMom is not helping me obey the 10 commandments. She is hosting another wonderful-tastic give-away. I so want something from Lisa Leonard! Head on over to her website to check it out and enter…but if you win instead of me, we’re not friends anymore. 🙂

http://simplemom.net/giveaway-time-score-handcrafted-jewelry-from-lisa-leonard/

I love checking out books from the library for Jennika. This book is one of the main reasons why. There are okay books and there are icky books and then there are adorable, fun, and clever books like this one. We read this book at least once a day. Even though I nearly have it memorized I still find it fun to read. Jennika is captivated by the bright illustrations and she loves the rhyming verse. Just take a look the cover, how can anybody resist such an adorable, pouty llama?!
Apparently the author also wrote a book called Llama llama  Red Pajama. We’ll have to look for that one next time we’re checking out books. I hope you find this one next time you’re at your local library. Then curl up with your little one and enjoy!

My mom recently introduced me to this wonderful-tastic milk and no matter how much of it I drink I still can’t get over how yummy it is. Why, you ask? Well it’s got this wonderful rich and creamy taste, even though it’s non-fat. My favoritest is the fat free chocolate milk that tastes just as creamy as the whole milk chocolate milk.

Don’t believe me? It’s okay I had my doubts about this milk too. Try it for yourself. Here’s a coupon for you, there, now you have no excuse. Once you try it, let me know what you think. 🙂

In honor of Mother’s Day, Parenting Magazine is giving away a vacation to Mexico, which seems really unappealing right now, BUT they are also giving away a great item each day this month. The purse they were giving away yesterday was just about the most adorable thing ever and there’s lots more good stuff on the way. To enter (you have to enter every day for the daily drawings), click here: http://www.parenting.com/entermothersdaysweepstake.do

If you win something make sure you let me know!

My daughter has recently taken an interest in our local library. She is currently more interested in pulling the books off the shelf than reading them, but we’re working on that. 🙂

She recently selected a book that I have loved reading to her. On this snowy March day when I’d rather be seeing sunshine and flowers than clean sparkly snow I thought I’d share it with you.

It’s called Cold Little Duck, Duck, Duck by Lisa Westberg Peters. It tells the story of a little duck who arrives at her pond a little too early. It’s still frozen and her feet stick to the ice (ice, ice). Instead of going back (back, back) as the bear suggests, she starts to think (think, think) of all the wonderful things of spring. Soon her thoughts of spring begin to change her surroundings. 
As I read this to my daughter over and over again, because it’s one of her favorites, I wish I could just think about spring and make it suddenly appear. Even though I can’t, I can enjoy the anticipation of warmer weather, flowers, and no more snow!