Health | 3 Boys And A Dog

Vital Earth Traditions Lady Godiva Review and Giveaway

April 15, 2011 By Ashley

As a busy mom, I have learned that long soaks in the tub are hard to come by, if I can even manage them at all. It’s a bummer that I don’t get to pamper myself as often as I’d like (oh, you know, every day massages would be nice!), so I have learned to really enjoy the everyday luxuries of fabulous lotions, soaps, and other deliciously scented things!

When I heard about the brand new Lady Godiva line from Vital Earth Traditions, I was immediately smitten. As the name suggests, this line of hand soaps, and lotions is chocolate scented. I have to tell you, this body lotion is easily my favorite as of late! Who wouldn’t want to have chocolate scented hands and arms?! It’s not overpowering, and it really does moisturize beautifully. You may even remember our previous review of Vital Earth Traditions. We love them even more now, if that’s even possible! What’s even better is that the entire Lady Godiva line is free from yucky junk like chemicals and other unnatural things. From the Vital Earth Traditions website:

“We offer natural herbal bath and body products that are chemical free and paraben free. There are a wide variety of lotions, body butters, soaps, herbal remedies, massage lotions, creams, cleaners and Allergy Safe Products to choose from and more!”

This is so reassuring! I love all-natural lotions and body products, but find that sometimes they fall down on the job and don’t actually fulfill the task at hand (if you’ll pardon the pun!). The Lady Godiva line really does deliver! In fact, they even include a bar of “recycled soap” in each purchase. They take the left over cuttings and shavings from their other luxurious soaps and use it to make more soap! No waste here!

Want a package consisting of hand lotion, liquid hand soap, a bar of recycled soap, and a bar of hand soap on the decadent Lady Godiva scent? You’re in luck, because one lucky reader will win a Lady Godiva package from Vital Earth Traditions, a $35 value!

REQUIRED COMMENT: Head on over to Vital Earth Traditions and let me know what product you’d love to try!

BONUS #1: Follow @kellylynchring and @momof3boys3702 on Twitter and RT this contest. The easiest way to retweet is to simply click the green ReTweet on the top right of this post. YOU MAY TWEET ONCE DAILY

BONUS #2: Like Vital Earth Traditions and 3 Boys and a Dog on FaceBook then share this post by clicking the FaceBook share button at the bottom of this post.

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)

#2. Follow my blog.

#3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.

#4. Put my button on your blog.

#5. Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.

#6 – Vote for me at Picket Fence by clicking the button on my sidebar. Be sure to leave a comment saying you did! YOU MAY VOTE ONCE DAILY!

CONTEST ENDS: at Midnight CST on 4/29/11. OPEN TO: US

*DISCLAIMER: I was sent items by Vital Earth Traditions to help facilitate my review. Any opinions stated are strictly my own.*

Filed Under: Beauty / Spa, Giveaways, Reviews Tagged With: anglo saxon women, bath and body, bath and body products, body butters, culture, godiva, godiva chocolatier, godiva review, hand lotion, hand soaps, health, herbal bath, herbal remedies, human interest, lady godiva, liquid hand soap, lucky reader, luxuries, luxurious soaps, massage lotions, medicine, natural lotions, new lady, popular culture, public nudity, safe products, shavings, skin care, soaks, soap, soaps and lotions, sociology, vital earth

Giveaway: Skin MD Natural + SPF15

March 31, 2011 By Tabitha

Every winter I get dried and chapped hands. I have tried many, many, different lotions and creams on my hands to alleviate the problem and they have all been either too greasy, too heavy, smell awful or some combination of all three. No matter what I try they get worse. This year and last year have been my two best years so far for dry hands, they didn’t get nearly has chapped as in previous years but they still dried out and got itchy.

So when I was given the opportunity to try Skin MD Natural I thought, why not, the worst that can happen is it’s the same as all the others. I was pleasantly surprised that my hands have never felt so smooth, and I have only being using the cream for a few days. Even after washing my hands they still feel smooth. When I first used the cream it went on nicely and I only had to use a small amount as the bottle suggests. After my first use it still left my hands feeling a bit greasy, but after the second or third use the greasy feeling had gone away and I was left with a very smooth hand indeed! For the size of bottle (4oz) it says that you should get about 1-2 months of daily use out of it, decent for the size of bottle.

You can use the lotion for your hands, face and body. Around the same day that I received my bottle my face also started to feel dry and tight so I thought, well let’s give it a try there too and see what happens. Within minutes, after only one use, my face felt smoother and less irritated! No other face cream that I had tried had ever made my face feel that smooth and it didn’t leave a greasy residue! I am impressed! Although it isn’t in my normal routine to apply cream to my face and hands I really want to try with this cream because it does work as well as the bottle and their website says it will. Along with the bottle of lotion I was also sent some small samples of their shielding lotion plus sunscreen SPF15 and I am looking forward to using that when and if the sun decides to stick around for a while.

One of the things that sticks out for me when buying products now is the ingredients that are in them. Since becoming a mom I have become more and more aware of what goes into the product that I use and I try my very best to purchase environmentally safe products as well as products that aren’t harmful to my kids or myself. The word “natural” gets thrown about as easily as a leaf on a windy day. What is all natural to one company is not necessarily all natural to another. Skin MD Natural is very transparent about what is in their products. So transparent that they list their ingredients and then give a full description of what each ingredient is and what it does in the cream.

Our goal from the beginning has been to guarantee that Skin MD Natural is as healthy and beneficial as it is effective – and it is very effective. We use the highest quality, safest ingredients and never use cheap, irritating perfumes. We have the most transparent ingredient disclosure in the industry.

Skin MD is available for purchase on their website or you can buy it at most local pharmacies. They have a handy location search on their site as well.

One of our lucky readers is going to win a 4oz bottle of Skin MD Natural for themselves! Here’s how to enter:

REQUIRED COMMENT: Visit the website, look around, then come back and tell me something you learned.

BONUS #1: Follow @Skinmdnatural and @momof3boys3702 on Twitter and RT this contest. The easiest way to retweet is to simply click the green ReTweet on the top right of this post. YOU MAY TWEET ONCE DAILY

BONUS #2: Like Skin MD Natural and 3 Boys and a Dog on FaceBook then share this post by clicking the FaceBook share button at the bottom of this post.

Other bonus entries:

#1. Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)

#2. Follow my blog.

#3. Subscribe to my RSS feed.

#4. Put my button on your blog.

#5. Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.

#6 – Vote for me at Picket Fence by clicking the button on my sidebar. Be sure to leave a comment saying you did! YOU MAY VOTE ONCE DAILY!

CONTEST ENDS: at Midnight CST on Apr 14, 2011

OPEN TO: US and Canada

*DISCLAIMER: I was sent items by Skin MD Natural to help facilitate my review. Any opinions stated are strictly my own.*

Filed Under: Beauty / Spa, Giveaways, health, Reviews Tagged With: aesthetics, chapped hands, cream, dry hands, Giveaways, greasy, hands, health, like skin, lotion, md, Natural, security, shielding lotion, skin, skin care, skin md, spf15, sunscreen

National Cleaning Week: Bathrooms

March 31, 2011 By Kelli 2 Comments

If your house is like mine (full of nasty little boys) then today is going to be your worst day of the entire National Cleaning Week. Today, we are going to tackle the bathrooms – remember, this is not your daily cleaning session, but deep cleaning to get the places that sometimes get missed!

Steps to Deep Clean Your Bathroom:

Get out the linens! Remove curtains, blinds, mats &/or rugs, and, if you have one, the shower curtain. Wash and dry the curtains, mats &/or rugs, and shower curtain while continuing your bathroom deep cleaning. Clean any blinds according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Remove everything you can see! You don’t have to empty the cabinets at this point, but now is the time to get everything else out. Everything from the counters, tub, floor, etc need to go out for now. It is such a little room that the easiest way to get it scrubbed is to start with a blank canvas.
- - Do your kids have bathtub toys? How about soaking them in a bucket with a little bleach to kill all the slimy nasty’s that tend to grow on them. This is also good for scrubbing your toothbrush holder, soap dish, and trash can.
Cobwebs need to go! Grab a broom or your favorite duster and tackle any cobwebs lurking in the corners, under the ends of cabinets, etc.
Spray down the tub, toilet, and sink. Get a good spray on cleaner like Scrubbing Bubbles and spray it on – allow it to soak in while we do the next few steps.
Light fixtures, fan cover, air conditioner vents! How long has it been since you pulled the cover off the bathroom fan? Yeah, that’s what I thought! Pull it off and scrub it down. Remove light fixtures and scrub them in some hot soapy water, too. Plus, take that rag and really scrub that a/c vent.
Clean the window! If you have a window in your bathroom, now is the time to clean it up. Use a toothbrush to get the tracks really well and be sure to get all around the window sill!
Clean the tub, toilet, counter, and sink! Now that the cleaner has been sitting for a bit, this part should be fairly easy. Just don’t forget to get all the nooks and crannies as well as the outsides of them!
Attack the cabinets! Start with one little section and pull things out. Do you need them? Do you use them? Are they expired? Do you have 4 more behind them? Time to start cleaning out the extras. I am sure your local Church or Shelter would love to have some of your extras. If you have several open bottles, combine them into one. Make a new scent if you have to.
Scrub the floor! Time to sweep the floor really well and then attack it on your hands and knees. Get the corners, baseboards, etc really well.
Last step – put it all back! Now it is time to rinse out the things you had soaking plus start putting everything else back.

How does it look? Better yet, how does it smell? Maybe tonight you can enjoy a nice quiet bubble bath in your “new” bathroom!

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: architecture, babycare, bathing, bathroom, bathroom fans, bathrooms, bathtub, clean bathroom, cleaning, daily cleaner, deep cleaner, health, hygiene, light fixtures, little boy, National Cleaning Week, oral hygiene, personal life, plumbing, scrubbing bubbles, shower, shower curtains, toothbrush, week, window blind

REVIEW: GrabGreen Ecofriendly Home Cleaning Products

March 18, 2011 By Kelli 11 Comments

This ecofriendly home cleaning products review has been sitting on my to do list for much too long. When Patricia, the Founder and Owner of MaddieBrit Products, LLC contacted me about trying their GrabGreen products, I was super excited. Unfortunately, she sent me ecofriendly home cleaning products that I couldn’t use- dishwasher detergent. I don’t have a dishwasher; so, I had to ask my mother to review them for me. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get it. LOL! Consequently, this review has been hard for me to write. When I called her to ask how she liked it, how it worked, and to give me some thoughts this is what she said:

Grammy Says: Well, the Thyme with Fig Leaf smelled nice and clean. It did a good job as far as I can tell. Oh, I really liked the pods! I don’t have to measure or worry about a spill, so the pods are nice.

Hmm, thanks Mom! That was helpful. LOL!

GrabGreen Says: GrabGreen’s Automatic Dishwashing Detergent is best described as incredibly effective and convenient! And it has to be said… the aromatic scent of essential oils filling your kitchen is simply delightful. One cute little pod removes the greasy stuff making your dishes sparkling clean with a spotless finish. A pouch contains 24 pre-measured concentrated powder pods. There’s no over-pouring detergent here which means no more wasting detergent or money.

GrabGreen’s biodegradable formula is specifically formulated for standard and elegant European models. Made with non toxic, naturally-derived ingredients. Made without phosphates and chlorine. Safe for septic systems. GrabGreen is critter friendly – no animal testing with our products.

At only 8 dollars for a pack that will wash 24 loads, that isn’t bad! Plus, the convenience is fabulous. More and more people are using ecofriendly home cleaning products these days as opposed to harsh chemicals.

For more information on GrabGreen, be sure to:

Do you have a dishwasher?

What type of dishwasher detergent do you use?

Have you ever had any experience with the little pods?

I want to hear your thoughts on going green with cleaning!

Filed Under: Homemaking / Housekeeping, Reviews Tagged With: cleaning, cleanliness, detergent, dishwasher, dishwasher detergent, dishwashers, dishwashing, dishwashing detergent, ecofriendly, essential oils, grabgreen, health, Home, home appliances, home cleaning products, hygiene, patricia, personal life, Product, review, sparkle cleaner, the dishwasher: dead samurai

GIVEAWAY: Kids Teach Yoga Flying Eagle (DVD)

March 11, 2011 By Ashley

I don’t know about you, but I have days where, between kids, emails, to-do lists and meals, I’m ready to absolutely dissolve into a puddle of misery and exhaustion at the end of the day. Adults have a lot going on, and we get stressed and frazzled with all that we cram on to our plates. It may not seem like it, but our kids have a lot going on, too! Sure, they may not be juggling an entire family, but they’re figuring out life, being shuttled from soccer to tutoring to baseball and back, and still have to make sure their rooms are clean. It sounds easy looking back on it now as an adult, but as a 4-11 year old, that can be pretty daunting!

I know that when I get overwhelmed, I like to do some Yoga to get me back to center. Why wouldn’t your kids benefit from Yoga, too?! They would! Kids Teach Yoga: Flying Eagle is a 31-minute DVD that is totally kid-friendly. Led by 12 year-old Haley, a group of seven kids ranging in age from four to 11 years engage in classic breathing techniques to help get them calm and focused. At first, Emma, my almost 4-year old was hesitant, but about two minutes into the routine, she joined me on the floor and did each of the poses and holds alongside me. Some moves were funny to her, but that’s part of the joy of relaxation—getting enjoyment out of the little things in life! I loved how Haley, the leader, encouraged the other participants to lead the group themselves. It shows that even when winding down, it’s still important to share and take turns. The music is calm and not distracting at all, which is something I’ve found to be true with other Yoga DVDs. The routine incorporates teamwork, individual strength, and focusing your energy. Overall, I give it an A+!

THREE lucky 3 Boys and a Dog readers will win a copy of the Kids Teach Yoga: Flying Eagle DVD!

REQUIRED COMMENT: Visit Yoga Calm and take a peek around their site. Come back here and comment with something you learned about their awesome company!

BONUS #1: Follow @momof3boys3702 on Twitter and RT this contest. The easiest way to retweet is to simply click the green ReTweet on the top right of this post. YOU MAY TWEET ONCE DAILY.

BONUS #2: Like Yoga Calm and 3 Boys and a Dog on Facebook then share this post by clicking the Facebook share button at the bottom of this post.

OTHER BONUS ENTRIES:

Spread the word about this review by: email, forums, blogging, Digg, or putting the link in a meme. (one entry per thing done)
Follow my blog.
Subscribe to my RSS feed.
Put my button on your blog.
Leave a comment on any other post (excluding giveaways!) Be sure to leave a comment here saying which post.
Vote for me at Picket Fence by clicking the button on my sidebar. Be sure to leave a comment saying you did! YOU MAY VOTE ONCE DAILY!

CONTEST ENDS: at Midnight CST on March 25, 2011.
OPEN TO: US Only
*DISCLAIMER: I was sent items by Yoga Calm to help facilitate my review. Any opinions stated are
strictly my own.*