The 2nd time was at a larger, big box store, and I couldn’t find the demonstration table to save my life. I asked every sales associate I knew, and no one knew what I was talking about. I went online later when I got home, and people all over the country were experiencing similar issues.

Just this weekend, I attended an in-store demo for Dial™ NutriSkin™ lotions. The girls and I all have our sensitivities. I seem to be affected the most by laundry detergents. Change it up on me and I will itch and scratch until I can’t itch and scratch any more. Coco has the most sensitive skin of all of us. Change the laundry detergent, soap, or lotion and her skin will be scaly, and itchy, and rough. It’s awful. Lulu has the least sensitive skin but clothing textures and materials will make her itch all over. So it’s crazy in my house trying to find products that will suit all of us.

So, I’m generally not one to change it up when it comes to skin care products, but since I was already familiar with the Dial™ NutriSkin™ line, I thought I’d give it a try.

I’ve been using Dial™ NutriSkin™ for just over a year now. I have the extra dry lotion for myself and it’s been doing a pretty good job. For the girls I’ve actually been using jojoba oils on their skin, but that gets expensive very quickly, so when the opportunity came up for us to attend an in-store demo, I jumped at the chance to find something that’ll work for the girls.

Finding the demo table was easy – as soon as I walked into the store, there it was! There wasn’t anyone taking the opportunity to try out the different lotions, so we were able to step right up. And, as you can see, Coco was eager to try out a new lotion that she could use herself. I don’t allow them to touch the jojoba oil since it’s runny and can mess up my carpet in an instant LOL! She’s rubbing on the Sensitive Skin one which is both fragrance free and hypo-allergenic. Plus, when the nice woman gave us a $1 off coupon, that sold the deal. We’re currently using the lotion now, and we’ve had no problems so far. Both girls are excited that they get to pump their own lotion out of the bottle, while I’m happy for them to be more independent while getting dressed. One small step at a time. If only Coco could get her shirts over her own head every once in awhile…

So I thought it was a good idea to have the demo table right at the front of the store. I didn’t have to go searching for it, and once we did the demo, I was free to continue with the rest of my shopping at Walmart. Which included stopping at a demo for Starburst. Which my girls couldn’t pass up. Or wouldn't pass up. Go figure. But since they passed out a coupon as well, I was a little bit relieved. They fill my girls with sugar, but give me a discount to make the dental bills easier to swallow. And then they also got vitamins. Notice the purse on Coco? I think she keeps every dollar she puts in that thing. But somehow she seems to walk out of the stores with more bags than I have. I’m missing something here. Or doing something wrong!

About Dial™ NutriSkin™

Get your daily dose of healthy skin nutrition with Dial™ NutriSkin™ lotion. The unique BioNutrient Complex replenishes your skin with a fast-absorbing blend of vitamins, minerals and nutrients that lasts for 24 hours and leaves skin feeling hydrated and never greasy.

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Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. All of the opinions expressed above are my own.

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I’m so glad the weather is getting better. The girls and I have so many experiments going on, it’s hard to keep track. Last year we grew lemons (2 lemon trees), green peppers, and tomatoes in containers on the back deck. It doesn’t get a lot of sun back there, but we were anxious and we got some results. I wouldn’t call us green thumbs yet, but we’re getting there.

This year we’ve got a worm compost bin going, and we’re trying to grow many more things – strawberries, spearmint, garlic (from bulbs and bulbils), tomatoes, lemons (we’re up to 4 trees now), limes, and onions from cut spring onions.

The worm bin has been fun so far. We’ve been savings our veggies, instead of throwing them away, and feeding the worms with them. We even saved our lemon slices from the water we got at a restaurant to give to the worms. I think it’s great that the girls are thinking before throwing things away. They stop to think if the worms could recycle the product instead of just throwing things out. We’ve put egg shells, paper, and toilet paper rolls in there as well. We’ve had a few escapees and the neighbors keep begging us for worms to play with. We haven’t seen the results yet – it hasn’t been long enough – but we’re having a good time learning about composting and using worms to speed up the process.

Growing fruits and vegetables has been fun so far, too. During December and January the lemon trees started flowering. This means that, lemons will start to form where the flowers were. On one of the trees we had over 40 flowers! I can’t imagine growing 40 lemons on one container plant, but we’ll have to keep looking to see if it really happens. And then our friend Ms. Carol gave us grow pots to start strawberry seeds in. We’ve watered and planted them, and are waiting to see the seeds turn into plants. You’ve got to have patience with these things.

The most fun thing to watch has been the spring onion plants. Someone told me that if you put the white part of the onion with the root in a glass of water, that it will start to regrow. Well, when we put the onions in the glass, the stem was less than an inch long. In 7 days we had shoots sticking out of the top of an 12-ounce glass! Now that’s some seriously wacky science! Wouldn’t you agree? You can duplicate this wacky science experiment in your own home. And you’ll see results FAST. I promise. This weekend we planted those onions and will eagerly watch them continue to grow. And now we know that we can simply cut off the tops of the onions when we want to use them to flavor our dishes.

I think these experiments have been more fun for myself than for the kids, but the girls have a GREAT time showing the neighborhood kids what we’re growing in our backyard. In containers.

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Author: Janet Halfmann

Illustrator: Laurie Allen Klein

Publisher: SylvanDellPublishing.com

ISBN: 978-1907180753

Pages/Price: 32/$16.95

Category: Children’s Board Book/Children’s Fiction

About Fur and Feathers by Janet Halfmann

Fur and Feathers is the winner of a Gold Moonbeam Children's Book Award. When Sophia dreams that howling winds whisk the fur and feathers right off her animal friends, she shares some of her clothes with them. But her clothing doesn't work well for the animals. Seeing their disappointment, she offers to sew each one the right coat. Animals line up to explain what they need and why. Polar Bear needs white fur to stay warm and hide in the snow. Fish needs scales, but with slime. Snake needs scales too, but dry ones. And how will Sophia make a prickly coat for Porcupine? The award-winning team of Halfmann and Klein (Little Skink's Tail) reunite to bring animal coverings (and classification) to life in an imaginative way. Sophia's friends include Duck, Fish, Frog, Ladybug, Polar Bear, Porcupine, Snail, and Snake. The For Creative Minds educational section includes: Scientific Classification, Skin Coverings, and Animal Classification. Additional Teaching Activities and Interactive Quizzes are available on the Sylvan Dell Publishing website.

My Thoughts on Fur and Feathers by Janet Halfmann

I enjoyed this book and so did my daughters. When Sophia goes to sleep the windstorm takes all of the outer coats off of all of her animal friends. This makes the animals cold. So Sophie, being a good friend helps to replace the missing clothes with buttons, pieces of fabric, feathers, pins and needles – you get the picture! It’s so fun to watch Sophie come up with replacement clothes for her friends, and for her friends to receive their new duds.

The illustrations are fun – and funny – and the ending, after Sophie wakes up from her dream, is very cute.

Your kids will enjoy this book as much as my family did, if not more.

About the Author, Janet Halfmann

(from amazon.com)

Janet Halfmann is an award-winning children's author who strives to make her books come alive for young readers and listeners. She has written more than thirty books, both fiction and nonfiction.

My disclosure policy. I actually won this book from another blog. I’m glad I did.

I’m thankful that my 8-year old loves to read as well. Even if the only ones she’s interested in at the moment are Junie B. Jones and Amber Brown books. I can roll with that. Although reading does have competition when the weather is nice. In that case the outdoors, the neighborhood kids, and the bikes win over reading. But outdoors is good too.

And my 6-year old loves to be read to. Slowly but surely, she’s learning to read to us. I can’t wait until she’s reading who books on her own. The excitement mimics the excitement I had when her big sister started to read. As an avid reader, I can’t imagine a greater joy than watching my daughters become eager readers as well.

In celebration of World Book Day – March 1st, for those of you who are uninitiated – Coco, my 6-year old, is going to dress up as her favorite character, Ariel. On any given day she’s got fancy dress ideas, from combining the weirdest colors together, to wearing tank tops in the dead of winter. But, again, I roll with it – as long as she’s got a sweater on top to combat the weather. I’ve learned how to pick my battles.

What about your family? Do you wear costumes for world book day? How do you celebrate world book day? Are you a family of readers too? What’s your favorite genre of books?

My disclosure policy. Featured post by Fancy Dress Ball.

Today was definitely a comfort foods day. And since I do my best to keep the bad foods away from my girls, I tried to make it healthy. So I made a pork schnitzel recipe I found online.

Comforting Pork Schnitzel

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs pork sirloin cutlets
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 teaspoon Lawry’s seasoned salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 3/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 1/2 teaspoon dried dill
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream (full fat)

How to...

I rinsed the pork and cut into smaller chunks to make it easier for the girls to eat. I then laid out 3 shallow bowls: 1 with the flour, salt, and pepper mixture, 1 with the egg and milk mixture, and the last with the bread crumbs and paprika mixture. Then place 3 Tbsp. of olive oil in a heavy-bottomed skillet (I used cast iron), on medium low heat. As that’s heating up take the pork pieces and dredge them individually in each of the 3 mixtures, before placing them in the hot skillet. Allow them to cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, and then place them on a plate when down. I put a paper towel on the plate to soak up the excess oil.

Once all the meat is cooked pour the chicken stock in the pan along with the dill, salt, and sour cream. Mix until it thickens. It took about 6 or 7 minutes for it to thicken in my pan. Then pour the dill over the cutlets and start eating.

Normally I’d add a veggie side dish but since my youngest has strep throat, I have a sinus infection, and my oldest is suffering from the sniffles, I just ate fruit with mine, while the girls had popsicles. This was a relatively quick meal, the clean up was surprisingly fast, and with the smaller cuts of meat, the girls ate them like nuggets.

recipe credit

Pork Special at Publix This Week

Pork sirloin cutlets are on sale at Publix this week from Thursday, Feb. 16, to Wednesday, Feb. 22.

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Making the DIY Worm Bin

It wasn’t so bad. I hooked up my Black & Decker drill and drilled 1/8’ holes into the bottom and sides of one of the kitty litter bins. It took less than 10 minutes once I figured out how to switch the drill bits to the right size.

Next I added torn up toilet paper rolls, tissues, and paper towels, old celery, onions, and carrots that I cut up then mashed up in the blender, wet paper, some coconut coir, and leaves. Coco enthusiastically helped me. I think we got a good mix of stuff going on. The mixture was wet, but not dripping.

Then we had to add the dreaded worms. I was pretty scared. Lulu went into the house hiding. I think she thought the worms were wriggling around the box, and not inside a sack.

I opened the box and you could barely see movement inside the sack. I was good with that. I’m afraid of one worm, so 1000 is really more than I need to see moving around. I was glad to see, based on the sheet of paper included in the package, that the worms lose more than 1/2 their volume while traveling, and that there is some peat moss inside the sack as well. Good – that blunts the impact of 1000 worms on my psyche.

I dumped the worms into the bin, gave them a good stir, added the newspaper, and went on my merry way. Happily, proud of my accomplishment to mess with worms and live, and excited for our project to get started.

In the meantime I’m going to start gathering more scraps for the bin, including hair, coffee grounds, more fruits, veggies, and egg shells.

What do you think? Did I do good?

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About The Original Baby Bullet

Apple Walnut Puree- A delicious treat

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Review of The Original Baby Bullet (OBB)

Guest Review by LaTisha – a SAHM of 2.