In So Many Words

Thanks to those who entered the giveaway for the two Hallmark Recordable Storybooks. With the help of Random.org, two winners were selected and they were emailed for their address info and choice of book.

The winners were Jean Lasher and JoyMama!

Jean wrote:

I would love to win one of these books for my granddaughter. She lives in NC and I live in NY. We are not able to travel anymore due to my husband being sick so will not be able to see her for the holidays. Do miss seeing her grow up and change. This way she can hear my voice and know I still love her.

and JoyMama shared:

I think a recordable-book would be a great way to help my daughter (age 6) associate words with the printed page — and help keep her interest long enough to keep the book open to that particular page. Books have been a particular challenge for her, with her various developmental issues. Her librarian-mother is sometimes driven near distraction by this! But she does love to hear voice play-backs, and if this could help her stop on each page long enough to put together that each page does have meaning attached… well, it would be a tool well worth having.

Excellent give-away idea — might have to put it on a Christmas list if we don’t win!

I wish I had a book to give each and every one of you who entered – all of your stories touched my heart and I wish you much joy this holiday season.

For those of you with kids who are picky eaters, you know how hard it can be to introduce new foods (or even new brands of a food they like) into their diet. And if the child has food intolerances to ingredients such as gluten and casein, the task becomes doubly hard as you search for items that will pass inspection for dietary restrictions and the taste/texture test.

So I was a tiny bit apprehensive when I was contacted by NuLife Foods about trying out a sample pack of their frozen food items with my son. I was very intrigued, however, by the fact that all of their foods are not only free of any gluten, casein or soy, but also do not contain preservatives, artificial colors or flavors and are high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids.

We received sample sizes of six different products from NuLife: chicken nuggets, chicken burgers, beefy veggy meatballs, ultimate “cheese” pizza, cinnamon french toast and chocolate chip cookies. My son was only willing to try the items that were similar to things he already eats, so I ended up dividing the tasting duties between him and my husband.

My son tried and loved the chicken nuggets, french toast and especially the chocolate chip cookies. With the nuggets and cookies, I had enough to split them into two separate meals.

This is important because it allowed me to answer the all-important question, “Will he like it again the second time he eats it?” (I have gotten burned several times in the past when he tried something and said he liked it, but then wouldn’t eat more than one bite the next time.) The answer for both foods was yes, he did like them the second time, and even wanted more.

My husband gave an enthusiastic thumbs up to both the chicken burgers and the meatballs. The only thing we didn’t try yet is the pizza, so I don’t have an opinion on that product yet, but everything else was a definite home run in our house. (I didn’t participate in the taste testing because my esophagitis has been acting up and I have been limited on what and how much I can eat.)

The prices are certainly a bit higher than you would pay for similar items locally, but of course the catch with that is whether you can find them locally and whether they will taste as good. Also, many GFCF products that may be obtainable in a grocery store with a specialty section will not be soy free as well, so that is another consideration.

The quality of what we received from NuLife Foods was extremely good, and I would consider keeping some on hand for a special occasion such as a holiday meal where I know in advance my son won’t have as many options of what to eat as everyone else.

If you are interested in trying out some of their products, you can actually order the same trial pack we received from their website. At the time of this writing, you can get one trial pack for just $10.00 plus shipping (one time offer). This is a nice way to try out the products with your own test subjects before ordering a larger amount.

Hallmark Recordable Storybooks feature simple to use voice-capture technology. All you have to do is lay the book flat, press the record button and speak your message. Once you press the stop button, you will immediately hear a playback of what you have recorded and can simply re-record it if you wish to get it just right. Or, if you are happy with your recording, simply do nothing and move on to the next page.

Once you have finished making your recording, there is a switch inside the battery compartment that can be set to LOCK to protect what have done or switched back to UNLOCK to re-record a page or to erase all of the audio in the book. It’s a simple but effective safety measure to protect your recording from little fingers!

Review

For the review, I received a copy of the book All the Ways I Love You. I was instantly delighted by the adorable illustrations and touching verses. I immediately thought of a recent conversation with my brother, who is expecting his first child in March. He really wants his child to become familiar with his voice even before he is born, but my brother has to travel quite a bit for work right now.

This book would be a great tool for him to use by recording himself reading it so that his wife could play it for the baby when he is out of town. I thoroughly enjoyed trying out this book and was able to easily remove my voice so that it would be ready for my brother to use. Hopefully, he will find it as enchanting as I did!

Giveaway

I am hosting a giveaway for two Recordable Storybooks from Hallmark. Each winner will receive their choice of one of these precious keepsakes.

You can enter up to three times (one via each method listed below):
For your first entry, simply leave a comment on this post telling me how you would use the book if you won it.
One additional entry may be obtained by Tweeting about this giveaway and leaving me a comment with a link to your Tweet.
Another additional entry can also be obtained by sharing this giveaway on Facebook and leaving me a comment with a link to your Facebook post.

All entries must be received by Midnight EST on Tuesday, December 7th. The two winners will be chosen randomly and contacted via the email provided in the email field of the comment form for their address and book selection. I will announce the winners on my blog by Friday, December 10th.

For more information about the recordable storybooks, including browsing through the collection or hearing stories from other families of how they have used these keepsakes, visit Hallmark.com.

I often share about books I have read, and I do read a lot of books!  But lately I have also been getting into watching movies, especially since we now have the ability to access Netflix through our Wii.

Here are a few of the flicks that I have seen lately and would recommend checking out (I’m linking to them on Amazon because it so much easier with the widget right inside of Blogger):

Arranged – the story of two young women who meet while working in a school and find they have a lot in common.  Despite one being an Orthodox Jew and the other being a Muslim, they connect through their understanding of each other’s conservative lifestyle and the prospect of an arranged marriage.

This was a truly wonderful movie – I enjoyed every moment of it!

Outsourced – A fun story about a US call center manager who is sent to India to train his replacement as the company moves order fulfillment overseas.  He goes with the intention to teach them about America and finds out that he needs to learn about India.  This was a very fun movie.

Timer – What if you could know exactly when you would meet your soulmate?  The Timer promises to do just that, but our main character’s timer is still blank and she is over 30 (oh, the horror!).  Basically a nice romantic comedy with the twist of a device that makes me think of eHarmony on steroids, this was a cute movie, although it isn’t as clean as the others I’ve listed so far.

My Faraway Bride
I stumbled upon this movie one day while Bob & Michael were out of town and really enjoyed it.  The two main characters meet and fall in love instantly, but she is suddenly called home to India due to a family illness.  He decides to follow her there and miraculously finds her (well, maybe not such a miracle, as she turns out to be the most popular Bollywood film star in the country!).  A lot of fun!

As you can tell, I am mostly into light romantic comedy in my movies, just like my books.  This is definitely an escape valve for me.  I apologize if any of these have any offensive parts in them – I have to admit I tend to forget about the specifics.

What fun flicks would you recommend?

When I was contacted by Skin MD Natural a few weeks ago to try out their Shielding Lotion with SPF15 Sunscreen, I was intrigued to find out more about it and whether shielding lotion was the next greatest thing or just another way to sell a product.

Of course, the first thing I had to do was look up shielding lotion and find out what it is. I found this definition on Wikipedia:

Shielding lotions are lotions that bond with the dead skin cells of the epidermis, forming a protective layer with the outer-most layer. This protective layer is virtually the same as what was naturally formed with the outer-most layer of skin cells and the skin’s own natural oils and lipids, up until about 100 years ago – before modern life and frequent hand washing stripped it away. This protective layer helps prevents irritating substances from penetrating the skin and getting into its deeper layers. Additionally, it helps to retain the natural moisture and oils, which are responsible for the skin’s elasticity and integrity, thus helping the skin to rejuvenate itself.

Sounds interesting; now to see if it works. This is definitely the best time of year for a trial, since my skin gets very dry during the winter season, and I am constantly reapplying moisturizer throughout the day. I was also happy to hear that this product could work on the face, hands and body, since so many hand creams are too greasy to use on your face.

After using this skin care product, I have to say that I am really impressed. I noticed right away that it is not greasy and absorbs into the skin instantly, leaving your skin feeling smooth. I was able to touch things and go about my business right away instead of waiting for my hands to “dry,” so to speak.

Then I realized several hours later that my skin still felt smooth and moisturized, which is virtually unheard of with the other lotions I have. Between this and the fact that you do not have to use a large amount of it, I think the 4 oz bottle will last longer than some of my larger bottles of other lotions. The SPF15 sunscreen is an added bonus, in my opinion, although you can purchase the shielding lotion without it if desired.

Over the last couple of weeks, the shielding lotion has been put to an even bigger test. I had gotten what I thought was a really bad cold in mid-December when I suddenly developed a rash and was diagnosed with scarlet fever. One of the effects of this rash is extremely dry skin that often peels after the rash is gone. Although I did have to apply the shielding lotion more often during this period of time, I am happy to say that there has been no peeling, and that the Skin MD Natural helped take away the feelings of dryness and itchiness I was experiencing.

So if you are interested in natural skin care, I would highly recommend checking out Skin MD Natural’s Shielding Lotion, with or without sunscreen.