As you may or may not know, I Love the World or I Love the Whole World is an advertising campaign for The Discovery Channel that features a song to the tune of I Like the Flowers (which is a song made from one of the parts of Heart & Soul, the two part piano song.)
It shows people from around the world and from different Discovery Channel shows singing about what they like in the world. It's a wonderful song that everyone should hear.
Also the Discovery Channel is currently hosting a contest for you to make your own response video.Here's what they said:
People around the world have been creating their own versions of our 'Boom De Ah Dah' commercial and uploading them to YouTube. We love them so much that we want to call out to ALL of our talented friends out there and ask you to show us YOUR version of the song! Simply upload your video to your YouTube page and then send us the link to your song.
We will be posting the best and most creative submissions on our Discovery.com website, adding them to "The 'Boom De Ah Dah' Phenomenon" playlist and also featuring them on our Facebook and Myspace pages!
It's that time again. Time to show our support for being more environmentally friendly, to reduce our electricity usage for just one hour this saturday. Earth Hour has been such a success around the world, why wouldn't you want to participate?
Earth Hour and WWF would like me to share some information with you:
5 Things we want the world to know about Earth Hour
We can solve 3/4 of climate change by changing the energy we use.
First step is cutting down our use. Do those lights really have to be on? Can the computers be turned off at night? Think before you switch on.
10 million Canadians care about leadership on climate change.
Every person who participates in Earth Hour is sending a clear and inspiring message to our leaders to take further action needed to help our planet.
We're in the hot seat this summer - and it's not on the beach!
Canada is hosting the G8 and G20 Summits in Huntsville and Toronto in June, and climate change is on the agenda. Let's show the world what we are capable of.
Wildlife's best hope is avoiding 2 degrees Celsius.
Global warming is already threatening our coral reefs, the base of ocean life. If we can limit the warming, we can stop 1/3 of species from risking extinction.
WWF wants to help you make ever hour Earth Hour.
There's a big growing community online of people wanting to do more and looking for support. Join us at http://community.wwf.ca
So what can you do without lights, stoves, computers, music, video games, TV etc... for one hour?
How about:
Having a candlelit dinner
Reading by candlight
Play a game that requires little reading and mostly talking (the kind where you ask a question and everyone gives their answer)
Go outside and enjoy the stars. It should be easier to see with less lights
If it's just the two of you... have "adult" fun!
sit in a circle and tell ghost stories
Have a sing along by candlelight (or a real campfire if you are legally able)
This week I found out my youngest has asthma. She'll be 3 in about one week. She was prescribed an inhaler and is supposed to take it with an aerochamber and mask but REFUSES!
Skin Free is a company that makes skin care products for those with special skin issues or concerns such as Extreme Dry Skin, Skin or Fragrance Allergies, Psoriasis, Dermatitis, Eczema, Pregnant Moms, Babies, The Elderly, Diabetics, Renal Patients and After Radiation or Chemotherapy.
They have the following qualities:
All Natural, Vegan Ingredients
No Perfumes
No Petroleum Products
No Harmful Chemicals
No Steroids
No Colorants
No Greasy feeling
No Animal Testing, Cruelty Free
I was sent three products of theirs to try out and review. My reviews are honest and are not affected in any way by how I received the product.
The Extra Moisturizing Soap (pictured at right) was soft and a pleasure to use. It's for delicate, sensitive or very dry skin and is also helpful for allergies, eczema, psoriasis or dermatitis. While I don't suffer from any of the second group, I do have very dry skin on my hands and feet and the bar of soap did help. I used it on my whole body and it felt like I was being washed in butter. The bar didn't last long!
The Niaouli Butter Stick (pictured at left) is similar to the bar of soap except that it's not soap. It's a rub on stick you use for a patch of dry or broken skin and is perfect for rough elbows, cracked heels or chapped lips. It works really nice as a chapstick and helped my dry cracked elbows. The only thing that could make the product better was if it pushed up like stick deodorant so you could rub it directly onto your elbows or heels.
What IS Niaouli you may be asking yourself?
"The Melaleuca family contains three notable trees that contribute to the healing world: Tea Tree, Cajeput, and Niaouli. Niaouli is most valuable for disinfecting skin wounds. Niaouli can also firm skin tissue and help with ulcers, acne, blemishes, and chapped skin." - from the package
The Niaouli Scrub for Blemish Prone Skin (no picture) feels like a jar of wet sand but it really does a great job of sloughing off dead skin and exfoliating the skin. We used it in areas that normally get lots of breakouts (not the skin, but on the body.) We seemed to get less breakouts while we used it and when we stopped for a while, they seemed to come back but I'm not sure. The downside is the smell. It smells horrible, but good if you have a cold and want to clean out your nostrils. Also the sandy particles settle to the bottom so you have to stir it with your finger for a bit before scooping some out to use.
Overall I am impressed with the products and would definitely recommend them to someone with the skin problems mentioned above. Be sure to check out Skin Free and the Skin Free Blog.
I"d really like to know. If you do, how do you celebrate it? Bar-hopping and drinking green bear? Making St. Patrick's Day crafts with the kids and wearing green? Something else?
What Is St. Patrick's Day?
Saint Patrick's Day [...] is an annual feast day that celebrates St. Patrick (circa AD 387–493), the most commonly recognized of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on 17 March. The day is a national holiday of Ireland: a bank holiday in Northern Ireland and a public holiday in the Republic of Ireland. It is also widely celebrated in Great Britain, the United States, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Montserrat. There are also celebrations in other major cities throughout the world.
So if it's not a national holiday in Canada or the US, why do we celebrate it? Just another reason to have fun? To dress green? To drink beer?
Every year I struggle with whether I should do anything for St. Patrick's Day and if I should explain it to my kids. Now that my children are three and four they are old enough to wonder about it. Is it just a holiday to celebrate the colour green and shamrocks for children?
If you are looking for something to do with your children, here are some good links:
2010 marks the 16th year that National Craft Month has been celebrated by craft retailers as well as consumers. And with 63 million households crafting each year, there's a lot to celebrate!
Disclosure: I'm a BzzAgent and as such I sometimes participate in BzzCampaigns where I receive a product to try out and sometimes I might get coupons to share or samples to hand out (depending on what the item is). In exchange for the item, I'm to tell people about the product, what my honest thoughts are about it. Then I report back what I said and any reaction of those I told. I generate Bzz. (Buzz.) I can also review the item on a blog if I want.
You may have heard about Your Shape with Jenny McCarthy for Wii. It's a new exercise program for your Wii that doesn't require a Wii balance board.
Features
After doing a detailed fitness test, goal assessment and body scan, Your Shape builds a fitness program for you.
There are more than 400 exercises in different area (cardio, strength training, toning, flexibility etc.) so your workout isn't always exactly the same.
You don't need the controller or a balance board. It comes with a small camera that watches you work out and compares you to the proper way to do the move and offers feedback.
The game tracks your progress as you get closer to your goals.
Jenny McCarthy is your guide, showing you what to do and encouraging you to keep going.
You can do specialized workouts such as Get Bikini Ready, New Year's Resolutions, Free Your Mind and Active Mom Routine
If you have a balance ball, weights a step bench, or a heart rate monitor, you can use it with the game, but these items are in no way required.
So what do I think? I think it's a great start but that the program could use some work. Here are my problems:
I understand how the camera works but the problem is, I'm overweight and I don't necessarily want to see my body bouncing all over the place. Not to mention how skinny Jenny McCarthy is (even skinner in Wii format) which just makes me feel worse.
By the same token, you see your house as it is behind you. My house does NOT look like it does in the sample screen shot above. So I see the clutter and dirty walls behind me.
There is no option for light workout. It's quite hard sometimes, especially for me who is out of shape. I have troubles holding my hands up for any length of time and my balance is poor. I had to cheat on quite a few of them and I ended most of my workouts early (even though they are only 15 minutes long.)
The music. It comes with over 70 tracks but I don't like most of them. I don't even recognize most of them. When you are in the menu it plays a fast version of Umbrella by Rihanna which is great so I was expecting popular music during the workouts but they are all instrumental and I don't recognize them. They don't motivate me.
There are good things of course. Everything I mentioned in the features section is good. I think Your Shape would be better for someone who is not completely out of shape and could keep up better. Hopefully by doing the workout regularily I will get better and the exercises will become easier but it's hard not to quit for good when I can't even do 8 minutes of workout at one time. So if you aren't too overweight and can walk up stairs without getting tired and hold your hands up for a long time, this might be for you.
Okay I'm not actually a lunch aide. I'm a substitute lunch aide. I'm not sure if they call it that everyone so let me explain.
When I'm called to work, I go to the school during lunch hour and supervise the students while they eat their lunch and then go outside with them for recess and supervise out there. Sometimes I collect the afternoon kindergarten kids and bring them in, although that will be different come September.
At the schools I work at, (and most of the ones around here,) students eat in their classrooms, not in a lunchroom like in the picture at right.
Each class has a few student monitors, which are students in higher grades. The adult lunch aides wander between the classes, supervising everyone and making sure rules are followed.
Although I only do this job every once in a while, I like it. I do have complaints but having a chance to work in a school is enjoyable.
I am curious how students in other parts of Canada, the United States and the world eat their lunch. Do they eat in a lunchroom or in their classroom? Do they go outside first or after they eat? Anything else?
Disclosure: I'm a BzzAgent and as such I sometimes participate in BzzCampaigns where I receive a product to try out and sometimes I might get coupons to share or samples to hand out (depending on what the item is). In exchange for the item, I'm to tell people about the product, what my honest thoughts are about it. Then I report back what I said and any reaction of those I told. I generate Bzz. (Buzz.) I can also review the item on a blog if I want.
This time I had the pleasure of reviewing two Wii games, one of which I'm telling you about today.
Just Dance (Ubisoft) is a great party game but can also be played by yourself. Up to four players at a time can bust a move to 32 different songs. There is a WIDE variety of songs, so there should be something here for everyone. I can dance pop, rock, country, tribal, hip hop and more.
My favourite songs to dance to are Womanizer by The Gym All-Stars (NOT Britney Spears), Hot N Cold by Katy Perry, Who Let the Dogs Out by Baha Men and Cotton Eyed Joe by Rednex. Want to see the full list of songs on Just Dance?
The dance moves for all the songs were choreographed by professional dancers and the moves are shown on the screen for you to follow. You can see what Pump Up the Jam looks like. The dancer on the screen does the current move and little people icons scroll across the bottom to show you what's next. You rack up points based on how well you did (X, OK or GREAT!) and if you keep getting GREATs you become "on fire" and your point bar has flames. (see either side of the dancer in the link above.)
I think it's a great way to have fun when you have friends over. Teenagers and young adults would absolutely love this. Friends can join in anytime with a press of a button, even during a song! Just make sure you have a large space if you are having more than two dancers as we inadvertently smacked a few people and animals with a Wii remote because they were too close while we were dancing.
One way it could be better would be to have tutorial's for each song. There is a basic tutorial that just gives you some tips and hints in general. However there are some songs and certain moves that I'm sure I'm doing right but I still get an X. A slow motion shot of the move with explanation would be helpful. I'm sure I'll get it eventually but a tutorial would have been better. Also, even though some moves have to be done exactly right to count, other times I can sit on the couch, have the Wii remote beside me on the couch while the game is playing, move a little and it counts points.
The game also has 2 other modes. Strike a Post is like dancing Red Light Green Light. Stop when it says Stop and Go when it Says Go but be careful because you might Stop while you're friend is still moving and Go while she's stopped! In Strike a Pose, you have 7 lives and each time you make a mistake, you lose a life. If you can get 5 correct moves in a row, you win back a life. Last one with a life heart wins. This is for those who have really practiced a certain song.
Do you have a video camera? You can enter to win in the Just Dance $1000 weekly sweepstakes.You don't have to own Just Dance to enter. If you DO own it, record yourself dancing to any song (except A Little Less Conversation) and post it to You Tube and enter to win at the link above. If you don't have Just Dance, download You Can't Touch This or Fame from the website and record yourself dancing to it. Check out the link for full details.
The Peanut Institute - health facts, recipes, scientific research and educational materials
National Peanut Board - recipes, food service, manufacturing, nutrition, classroom, growers corner, kids corner (this one has facebook, twitter, you tube and flickr accounts)
Peanut (Blog Toplist) - find blog posts with the word peanut in it from all over. The only problem is it may include someone calling their kid peanut or a dog named peanut. But you can find lots of peanut related posts this way.
ADDED March 9, 2010:
Laurie from The Learning Station shared this recipe with me:
PEANUT BUTTER PLAYDOUGH
1/2 c. peanut butter
1/2 c. nonfat dry milk
2/3 tbsp. honey (optional)
Mix peanut butter and honey. Gradually add powdered milk until consistency of playdough.
This is a simple, multi-dimensional learning activity. From math and measuring, science and consistency, to texture and taste. It's a great fine motor activity to help build small hand muscles and eye-hand coordination. And it is heaping with creative free expression and fun! Kids can mold and play with this yummy dough, taste as they create, and then gobble it all up when they are ready. Don't forget to add to the fun and learning with some little playdough utensils such as child safe knives, rolling pins, mini cupcake tins, measuring cups and spoons.
Variation: Add some texture by adding a splash of graham cracker crumbs.
Important: Make sure you are aware of children's food allergies before preparing any recipe.
Children are always trying to stick their fingers or toys into the plug sockets. Most stores sell those little plug covers that you can plug in, stopping your little one from electrocuting himself but the problem with those is that some older kids can get them out and they children still see the plug and are interested in it.
coverPlug is a newer invention designed to go right over the whole outlet to keep your children safe and to make them disinterested in the whole thing. It's simple and quick to install and can be painted to match the wall colour.
There are two little plastic prongs on the back that fit into the ground openings of a double outlet. You just need to push it into place. It is removable by an adult and can be repainted if moved to another room. It's also nice if you just have an outlet in your house you never or rarely use that stands out a lot from the wall and you would like to cover it up.
However there are a few issues.
It won't completely cover up your outlet if it was not installed into your wall right. If it sticks out unnaturally it may not cover it completely.
It doesn't cover up those special outlets used in kitchens and bathrooms with the reset and test buttons (for safety near water)
It won't work on those really old plugs that don't have grounding holes. (The ones that have only 2 holes for each plug, not three)
Most electrical outlets will accept the coverPlug however.
GIVEAWAY - please read carefully
I have TWO two-packs to giveaway to two lucky winners. So each winner will receive two coverPlugs.
To enter please enter your information into the google form. Your information will only be saved until a winner is picked. Email addresses and names will not be kept or used otherwise. You MUST complete the form once for EACH entry. So if you do all four entries, you have submitted the form four times.
MANDATORY ENTRY: Answer the question:
1. What is your biggest safety concern for your children? (or your grandchildren, niece/nephews, friend's kids etc..)
BONUS ENTRIES (optional)
2. Become a follower of this blog using google friend connect (see sidebar) and tell me in the form. +1
3. Follow me on twitter. @callista83 and tell me your twitter ID in the form +1
4. Tweet the following and leave PERMALINK (direct link) in the form +1
coverPlug Giveaway @callista83 Easy to use cover for your entire electrical outlet - keep kids safe. http://bit.ly/dfTxQT Till Mar 17
That's a possible total of 4 entries. Giveaway open Worldwide until March 17, 2010
I wish I could give everyone who entered a free year's subscription. You all stated some good reasons why you need the meal planner.
Unfortunately I am only allowed to pick ONE winner.
And that winner is.....
Jen E
Congratulations Jen, I will be sending you an email right now!
Thanks to everyone who entered and don't forget, a year's subscription is only $58.80. If you do decide to sign up yourself, please consider giving my name as referrer: Kathleen Garber
There are also clickable buttons below to follow on twitter and fan on Facebook plus my Google Friend Connect.
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About This Blog
This is a blog mainly for women who live in Canada. I specifically reside in Windsor, Ontario and may feature information specific to those regions on occasion. I also sometimes feature information relevant to those outside Canada but I'm Canadian focused.
Common Topics: Parenting, Women and Children's Health, Cooking/Food, House and Home, Pets, Girl Guides and Multimedia for the family (DVDs, video games)
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SuperKids Nutrition is a wonderfully resourceful website for parents and other adults who want to help children eat healthy and grow well.
