YouTube & Me

Bless my heart - I'm on YouTube - run for your lives and cover your ears...



Everyone deserves a smile on a Friday...laugh away...

New Post at Campaign for Inside Health

Did you hear the news? I am a Community Manager over at the Campaign for Inside Health (that's Activia people).

No, you won't see me belly dancing any time soon. However, you will read me stirring the pot about healthy living. Y'all know I'm a lazy couch potato - cursed with a sad chronic digestive illness - but I'm taking this challenge to get some Inside Health for myself...and I want you there with me.

More to come on the program...but for now here's a read of my latest Inside Health post...

A Healthy Start

Parent Club Green Idea: Sending Coins to School

This Green Idea was e-mailed by a Parent Club reader...

You know how the school is always needing you to send in forms and cash for things like Pizza lunch, Scientist in the school, field trips, purchasing 50th Anniversary T-shirts etc. (and then there is also the Daycare…)

And how the amount the come up with always seems to include coins?? You know how you never seem to be able to find an envelope when you need one and how all those crazy utility companies always send you an envelope to pay your bill with even though you always pay it online?

Well I have started saving the utility bill payment envelopes (and any other unsealed envelopes I get from birthday cards or in the mail for other promotional stuff) and I put them in a basket on my desk and then whenever I need an envelope for something I take a big black marker to cross of any unnecessary info on the envelope and write something on it like “Boy 1 – Pizza Lunch $$ - Room XX” That way I reuse before the school hopefully recycles the envelope!!

Maybe other people have been doing this already but it is just something I have been feeling good about doing so I thought I would share…

We LOVE LOVE LOVE when readers share ideas, tips, comments, rants & experiences. To the tens of people who read Parent Club ;-) -- thank you and keep em' coming!

Parent Club Review: Febreze

They had us at candles. When the folks at Febreze asked the Parent Club Test Panel to review an assortment of new exotic products...well, they had us at candles.

Febreze® NOTICEables™ - Febreze NOTICEables is an innovative scented oil warmer you simply plug into any outlet for 30 days* of uplifting fragrance. Unlike other electric fresheners, it actually eliminates odors from the air.

"The NOTICEables was overpowering. Perhaps if it was used in a large (very large) room - I may have liked oil warmer...but in my small house the scent hit a little too hard as you walked in the room. I didn't love this product".


Febreze® Air Effects® - Febreze Air Effects is like a breath of fresh air because it actually sweeps away stifling odors from the air using our patented technology and leaves only a clean, refreshing scent.

"The Air Effects were really handy - just a spray before company and the house smelled fresh. I also sprayed it on the bedspreads and in the soccer bag for a freshen. The kids really liked the Hawaiin Aloha scent."


Febreze® Candles - Febreze Candles can burn for up to 30 hours and the refreshing scent lingers long after you blow it out. Try Febreze Candles in the kitchen to eliminate cooking smells and in the living room for other everyday odors, like odors from pets.

"The best candles EVER! Not only attractive in my living room - they really do get rid of odors (i.e. Friday fish night). The Hawaiian Aloha and Brazilian Carnival scents are light yet welcoming."

Kids Birthdays with Meaning

You have never seen children so happy as when they are clubbing a Care Bear piñata to death with a plastic baseball bat at a child's birthday party.

This past weekend we celebrated another birthday party chez nous - and again trying to do it with some meaning. This year's theme was 'ol skool - by that I mean games (non-electric, wait-your-turn, nobody gets a medal). The piñata was a huge hit (boy, kids have a lot of pent of anger).

Can you believe a "pin the tail on the donkey" could not - COULD NOT - be found in any stores. Instead, the choice was "put the flower in tinkerbell's hand" or "put the coin in Captain Jack's hand" game (wow - the marketing of it all). In a last minute (crap-do-I-have-enough-activities?!) moment - I put out a bunch of fabric cotton circles and the bin of markers - (the kids swarmed to colour faces).

Instead of the usual cheese pizza route - we went for healthy choices with a make-your-own sandwich bar (bagels, pitas, cream cheese, cheese strings, lunch meat - non-maple-leaf-brand, carrots, cucumbers, yellow peppers). The kids laughed over ARMPIT FUDGE. And piped it onto homemade naked cupcakes.

Then, we gave loot bags with meaning.

Now. I. have. a. kid-birthday-party. hangover. (that's when you've depleted all imagination and energy during a kid's birthday party) Please be quiet. Shhhhh.....