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Holiday Gift Guide
Last night, as I was sifting through my chest filled with my son's Christmas gifts, I realized I didn't have enough presents for him. As people would ask me what he wanted, I would give them something I had already gotten him. This left me short on gifts. I wasn't worried, though. I had MomCentral's Holiday Gift Guide to rescue me! Click on the link and you'll be taken to a beautiful page with lots of different categories…I clicked on "Kids" and within a minute, I added three more toys onto my son's list. I could read the reviews, see age recommendations, see the price, and find websites on which I could buy the product. What a wonderful stress-reliever for a frazzled mom!
Just as good is their Giveaway. Yep, you read that right-login to MomCentral, check out their dailygiveaway, leave a comment, and you could win the prize for that day. They are offering some great products and we all could use a freebie at this time of year. They're giving away packages until December 18th, so jump on today and try to win one of these awesome giveaways.
I have had the pleasure of working with MomCentral for almost a year now…they are a great group of women whose passion is to provide a place for mom's to talk, to provide needed information, and have fun along the way. This Holiday Gift Guide epitomizes all they truly are. Check it out today!
For coming to my Christmas rescue, I give this a
ridiculous / hilarious / terrible / cool : a year in an american high school
Many years ago, a friend of mine was dating a very worldly European woman. I found her fascinating and loved to hear her perspective on American life. One observation that she made sticks with me today, especially as I enter a room filled with people. She observed how self-conscious American women are…that instead of just being, we were concerned with what others thought of our being. She noted that our posture gave us away with its self-awareness.
As I read through ridiculous/hilarious/terrible/cool: a year in an american high school, this memory came floating back to me. Elisha Cooper's book chronicles the lives of eight teenagers over the course of one year of high school. I live high school each and every day, over and over again. This time around I have a bit more say it what goes on and, more importantly, I'm very comfortable with who I am. I can't say the same for my high school days.
I loved Cooper's book for it's simplicity with such complex characters. Teenagers, by their very nature, are complex beings-stuck between childhood and adulthood, desiring to be independent, yet secretly terrified of letting go. Cooper shows his reader this not by his words, but by these eight teens' words, and more importantly, their actions. We see in these characters what teens truly are-funny, uncomfortable, passionate, hopeful, driven. In these pages, we see not the stereotypical image of teens, but who they truly are. How, for the most part, they want to be defined.
Even for me, a high school English teacher, I was startled by their drive, passion, and honesty. We enter their lives, see what moves them (college, an iPod, a better future), and see that they all, in some way, want to change the world. These optimistic look at teens is refreshing.
I found myself laughing out loud at a character who said one thing, but his action's clearly showed the truth. I shook my head at the personal lives of some of the characters who struggled, yet persevered to move beyond their present. And each and every character in this book had a name from my teaching career. We may meet Daniel, and Zef, and Emily, and Maya, and Anais, and Anthony and Aisha, and Diana in Cooper's book, but they represent Sally, and Mike, and Kristina and Jeff. In their uniqueness, they are one.
Consider adding this book to your Christmas list for your own favorite teen, or parent of a teen, or high school teacher. You can check out Elisha's Cooper's website for more info on the author and a link to purchase the book.
I give this a
Clorox 2
You have kids, you have stains. It's the lay of the land. First, it is spit up stains. Then baby food drool. Then juice. Then grass stains. You see where I am going with this…I am currently in the "grass stains" category. Just last week, after our first snowfall, my son was climbing the hill in front of our house. You would think that with snow on the ground, it would be difficult to get grass stains. Not him. He came in happy as a clam and grass stains on his brand new, first time wearing them, jeans.
How glad was I that I had a sample of the new advanced formula Clorox 2? Most of my son's clothes are darker colors and after so many washings, the color does tend to get dingy. Clorox 2 promises to get out those stains and brighten those dark colors. While I haven't conducted any tests seeing if the color fades or get better, I can tell you that the grass stains are gone and his new jeans are still looking, well, new! I chose to use the Clorox 2 for sensitive skin. It smells like absolutely nothing, which I love so that it doesn't mix with whatever smelly laundry detergent I have.
Clorox 2 even offers a money back guarantee on their product, that's how strongly they feel about it. And, I have coupons for a FREE 33 oz. bottle for four lucky BBM Review readers. Just leave a comment between now and December 8th and the BBM Review will choose four lucky winners!
For helping me fight the grass stain fight, BBM Review gives Clorox 2 a
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