Meet the Mop That Changed My Life

I want to make clear from the beginning that this is NOT a sponsored post - just sharing something I love!

Sometime last year, I put a plea out to my readers to help me find the perfect steam mop. I HATE mopping with the passion of a thousand fiery suns, and I was willing to pay nearly any amount of money to make the job bearable. Here's some key words to start us out. Black dog. Three kids. Linoleum. Rental. Am I painting a lovely mental image here?

So one dear reader suggested the Hoover Floormate. I have the SpinScrub, but there is now a newer model. The Hoover Floormate is not actually a steam mop, but ended up being exactly what I was looking for. My main issues with mopping were:

1. I would spend all this time mopping, and then afterwards, if I would wipe the floor with a baby wipe, it would still come up brownish/gray.

2. The dog hair. Oh, the dog. How I wish.... never mind. Each time I would mop, it would simply push lines of dog hair into the corners of my floor, and I would have to go back through afterwards with baby wipes and clean all that up.

It was getting to the point where I would vacuum, use a Swiffer, then get on my hands and knees to spot-clean what the Swiffer hadn't gotten, and it STILL wasn't clean enough! Something had to change. Once my reader recommended the Floormate, I read the reviews and knew it was just what I needed.

Here's how it works:
*The Floormate has three functions: Vacuum, Wash, and Dry.
*Vacuum: Not intended to replace a regular vacuum, but nice if you're mopping and come across some crumbs or something. You can easily turn the switch to Vacuum, suction them right up, and then move along.
*Wash: You squeeze the trigger, and it sends out washing solution onto the floor, at which point some little rotating scrubbers under the head scrub the yuckyness, making your floors beautifully clean. At this point, the Floormate is also suctioning up the dirty water into a separate compartment.
*Dry: To decrease the drying time, there is also a Dry setting, which further suctions up the water. I don't use this because to me, the floors dry quickly enough without it.

The day it arrived from Amazon, I was giddy...

The first day I used it, I was converted. Here is my floor's side-by-side last two columns on the far right have not been mopped yet.)

Doesn't that look so nice and sparkling clean?

And then... this is unsettling. Here is some of the water the Floormate had sucked up during its first use. Beware... this is gross... See that bottom inch? Eeeeewwwww!

Thinking of buying one? Here are some Pros and Cons...

The Cons:
*Obviously more expensive than a regular mop.
*I always forget when I go into Dry mode, and I think I'm in Wash mode. I feel like it shouldn't squirt out the cleaning solution unless you're in Wash mode.
*About the same weight/size as a vacuum.

The Pros:
*No nasty water getting mixed into the water you are using for cleaning!
*The head is nice and low, so I can easily mop right against the edge of the floor, under the edges of my cabinets.
*You don't need to use their cleaner - you can use anything, even water and vinegar.
*It can clean lots of different surfaces - tile, grout, sealed hardwood, linoleum, etc.
*Cleans my floors so beautifully that if I take a baby wipe to it after I'm done, it comes up clean! I could NEVER make this happen before!

*And the biggest Pro of all.... now I LOVE mopping! I have gone from avoiding it at all costs, to actually being disappointed if my husband uses it without me. And, the more I love using it, the more frequently I use it, and the cleaner my floors are likely to stay! Can't beat that!

So that's that! Check it out! If you have any similarly wonderful products that have changed your mind about a household chore, I'd love to hear about them!

Product Review: Hot Wheels Wall Track

As a parent, I always find it helpful to talk to others about toys I'm considering. One of my son's Christmas gifts was a Hot Wheels wall track. I'd read mixed reviews on it, so I thought I'd offer my thoughts now that we've had it for a few months.

Hot Wheels makes several different types of wall track sets, and they're just like a car track that hooks to your wall using Command Strips. My son (age 5) REALLY wanted one for Christmas, but I was somewhat hesitant.

I've mentioned several times that we live in a pretty small house. We'd gotten car tracks before, but one was stepped on and broken pretty much immediately, and the ones that still work rarely got played with. It just always seemed like kind of a hassle to get them out and put them away. My other concerns were lack of wall space, and durability.

He ended up getting this Hot Wheels Wall Track Starter Play Set, and it's been a huge hit.

We solved the wall space problem by putting the track in the upstairs hallway outside his bedroom. I was worried it would get jostled off the wall all the time, and occasionally it does (maybe once or twice a month?), but it hooks right back in really easily. Is this my absolute favorite arrangement? No, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for my kid at this point. Obviously if you had a playroom or bedroom to put this in, that would be better, but we don't. I was originally planning to just leave the hooks on, and take the track on and off, but it gets played with so much that it's just been up since Christmas.

It's extremely durable under normal amounts of kid play. It stays on the wall beautifully, and stays all snapped together nicely. I've had no complaints from my son (or my husband!) about issues with the track. So far, it's held up really nicely. I did have to talk to my son about how it's held up, and let him know that he can't be rough with it, or allow any of his friends to be rough with it. But so far, no issues there.

The novelty absolutely hasn't worn off yet. There's lots of different ways to configure the track to make the cars do different things, and my son likes to experiment with sending different types of toys through the track as well. He and his friends spend HOURS with this toy, and one of his friends' moms even bought it for her son since he loved the one at our house so much. I think it was definitely my son's favorite Christmas gift, and probably one of his top gifts in several years.

Definitely, DEFINITELY recommend this toy!

American Girl Doll Versus Generic - Is It Worth It?

So it seems like every Christmas, the discussion begins... "My daughter wants a doll. Should I splurge and get an American Girl doll, or just get the generic one?" Here is our experience...

I'll start by saying that this was never about having the "American Girl" brand. I never had an American Girl doll, and I don't care at all about that brand as some sort of a kiddie status symbol, nor does my daughter.

When my oldest was 4, she asked for an American Girl doll. She had recently started playing with her older cousin, who had a generic Target one, but we didn't know if the doll phase would last. She's a responsible kid, so we knew she'd take care of it, but I didn't want to spend a lot of money on something that would just sit on the shelf.

So that first year, when she turned 5, we got her the Our Generation doll (from Target). She named her doll Sunny. Sunny was played with constantly, loved, and adored. She was more than getting our money's worth out of her. Two things to note: within a year, the material was coming apart at the neck, and the hair was incredibly tangled and ratty.

When she was coming up to her 6th birthday, she asked for the American Girl BRAND doll. Her cousin had gotten one by this time, and my daughter was in love with its smooth hair, and the ability to play the online game. I told her that I would buy her one for her birthday, but that would be her ONLY present from us. She gave it some thought and decided to just stick with Sunny.

That Christmas, Sunny got a makeover. We did the Doll Hair Detangler, and I sewed her up at the neck. Sunny looked pretty good, but as her birthday approached, my daughter again began wishing for an American Girl doll. I again offered her the same deal. She could have one, but it would be her only gift. For her 7th birthday, she agreed.

I was happy to do it, at that point. It had been over two years that her favorite pastime was playing dolls, and we knew she would take good care of it. Plus, we were making a trip to California and had the opportunity to go to the American Girl doll store to pick one out herself.

Ahhhhh.... the magic.....

 She named her new doll Charlotte....

 And we enjoyed a trip to the American Girl restaurant as well.

She doesn't regret getting Charlotte for one minute. The most important thing to her is the hair. It never gets snarly or tangled, and remains easy to brush out and style.  She also LOVES the online game that comes along with the My American Girl dolls. I love that Charlotte and Sunny are the same size, so Charlotte can use all the stuff we already had - we either make or buy generic for all the clothes and accessories. For my daughter, it was never about the brand name, it was always about having a doll like her cousin's that had "the good hair."

So, is it worth it? If your daughter is young, or you're on a limited budget, I would start with a generic one. Kids' interests change, and I would want to make sure it's something they were going to stay interested in. Also, aside from the hair, the generic ones are fine. My daughter made lots of good memories with her Sunny doll. If the money isn't a concern, or if your daughter is older, and you're confident that she'll love the doll and get lots of use out of it, and/or she will be very into styling the hair, I would definitely go with the American Girl brand. For my daughter, who plays with hers a LOT, the American Girl doll brand has proven to be far more durable. And really, it's pretty comparable in price to a lot of other big-ticket gifts, so I think in 2013, $100 isn't that much to pay for something your child will treasure and play with constantly. So I guess my final vote is: worth it!

Fitness Review: Weight Watchers

Like millions of other women, I am constantly trying to lose weight. I've never been extremely obese, but always 20-30 pounds overweight. My most recent endeavor has been another try on Weight Watchers, so I thought I'd review the program for anyone who was thinking about trying it.

As most people probably know, the premise of the program is that each food has an assigned Points Value based on fat, carbohydrates, protein, and fiber. You can either calculate the points yourself if you have the nutrition label handy, or they assign points for say, a flour tortilla, or a chicken breast. You are given a target point total to shoot for each day, and then you have additional "flex points" for the week, which can be evenly divided to give you more daily points, used for "splurges" occasionally, or not used at all. You can also earn Activity Points to supplement your daily points.

PROS

• It helps me prioritize my eating. I am one of those who LOVE food. Having a set amount of points, rather than restricted foods, means that I need to decide if the food I am craving is really worth the points it will use up. I either have the points, or I don't. And if something is high in points, I need to decide whether I will cut back somewhere else, or do more exercise to make up for it.
• Structure. For me it's nearly impossible to just say, "I'll eat better." This makes me track and record everything I eat, and make informed decisions about how I am going to allocate the points in my week.
• No restricted foods. I'm not wanting to give up french fries or chocolate or Chex Mix. With Weight Watchers, I can have them, I just have to be smart about the quantities of my favorite treats.
• Support network. Weight Watchers is a well-known program. At any given moment, I usually have a few friends and family members on the program, so that we can talk, exchange ideas and recipes, and support each other. There is also a HUGE amount of information online.
• Online component. I track all my food, my weekly weigh-ins, and my measurements online. This works well for someone like me who is online all the time!
• Under the newest version of their program, most fruits and vegetables are worth 0 points. This gives me an incentive to choose a healthier option, compared to something that might not be so healthy, but worth the same amount of points under the previous program.
• Diet soda is 0 points. While right now I'm trying to keep soda consumption to a minimum, I love that there's a 0 point beverage other than water.
• It's black and white. It leaves no room for emotional eating, or feeling sorry for yourself. You don't earn extra points for a crappy day at work, or a toddler temper tantrum. You can do your comfort eating, but you'll have to adjust for that down the line.

CONS

• The price. I am doing what I believe is the cheapest option, which is only tracking my points online and not attending meetings, and it is still nearly $20/month.
• Constant calculating. Breakfast and lunch are pretty easy for me, because I don't eat a really varied menu, but it's a hassle to be calculating recipes and food all the time.
• Eating out. I love eating out, but it's difficult to calculate points. For most mainstream restaurants, you can find the points values of the different foods either in the WW booklets or online somewhere. But for local places, it can be difficult to estimate the points for your meal.
• Their website, IMO, is horribly designed. I find the main website hard to navigate. I find the online tracker to be annoying, particularly the search function. Tonight I searched for "milk" and the first result was pudding made with skim milk, followed by buttermilk, followed by chocolate milk, before they finally got around to listing the points values of actual milk. This happens frequently.

 Overall, I really enjoy Weight Watchers. It helps me to be structured and accountable, while still giving me the flexibility to enjoy the favorite foods that keep me sane!

Review: Everyday Food Magazine

We've been getting this magazine for a few years now, since my husband got it for free one year with Coke Rewards points. We have LOVED this magazine! It's put out by Martha Stewart, and has a great mix of easy, everyday favorites, and interesting new things we want to try.

Just this month, I'm eyeing:

• Grilled Garlic-Lime Fish Tacos
• Shrimp and Edamame with Lime
• Flank Steak Kebabs with Peanut Sauce
• Garlic-Chipotle Beef Kababs
• Pork and Snap-Pea Kebabs with Ginger-Hoisin Glaze
• Bacon-Wrapped Corn
• Cherry-Lime Cups
• Frozen Chocolate-Mousse Trifles
• Frozen Lemon Souffle
• Strawberries and Cream Bars
• Strawberry Lemonade

And more! This is a magazine you can frequently find for free/cheap with various magazine giveaways, but even regular price is only $12 for the year. Enjoy!

Product Review: Nook Color

So I'd been minding my own business, happily ignoring the whole e-reader craze. I'm not one of those purists who only wants to read books with pages made of paper, I'm just one of those cheapos that hates to buy books. So when I heard recently that on the Nook you can check out epub books online, my curiosity was piqued. Then when I checked them out at Barnes & Noble and found out you can browse the internet on them, I was sold.

The Pros:
*You can check out books online from your local library without leaving your house! For me this was the MOST important thing. I have three little kids, I work full-time, and my husband is in school, so my time for going to the library and browsing around is pretty limited. So to be able to just log on, look around, put some virtual books in my virtual cart, and then have them appear on my Nook is AWESOME. Even better, they magically disappear from your Nook when they're "due." No more late fees! Not that I um, ever got late fees at the library, of course.

*You can get online. My husband is in school and spends a lot of time on our laptop, reading and studying. It's nice to have another option for browsing the web, and it's a nice little size.

*Rumor has it that Barnes and Noble is going to start coming out with some apps for it. Not sure of the truthfulness of this, but it's a nice possibility. It does have some games (Sudoku, chess), and you can stream Pandora.

*The color is nice. I don't personally get magazine or newspaper subscriptions on it, but you can. Also, if you have a book that has pictures in it, it's nice to be able to see them in color. Also, there are cute kids books and the color is great on them as well.

*The books aren't actually expensive as I thought to purchase. A lot of the NY Times bestsellers are only $5, and most of the rest are up to about $10-$15. So not too bad.

*The backlighting - for me, I LIKE this. For others, it's a con. With the regular Kindle and Nook, the screen looks like a real book page. With the Nook Color, it's backlit, like a computer screen. I like being able to read in bed, or in poorly-lit areas (which we have a lot of in our house!).

The Cons:
*When people told me you can check out books online, I envisioned these large websites where you can check out anything, immediately. As far as I've found, they don't have that. You need to check out the books from your local public library. Fortunately, I live in an area that's very technologically-oriented, and they have a TON of epub books to check out. But not all libraries are that way. So you may want to find out what your local library has before you use this as a main motivation to buy a Nook.

*It's much harder to go back and find a certain part than it is with a real book. You can search if you want, but if not, you have to tap along a slider bar and sort of try to find the spot you want. This is irritating.

*I worry about how light and fragile it is. My kids know they are absolutely not supposed to touch it. But we all know how that goes sometimes!

So, all in all, I consider it a GREAT purchase. I have read more in the month that I've had it than I have the entire rest of my six years of marriage. I'm reading all kinds of stuff, like several books a week. And I love reading, so it's been great to be able to get back to this hobby. If you have any other specific questions, I'd be happy to answer them, just let me know!

Product Review - Joovy Caboose Ultralight Double Stroller

For posts on this blog, I try to think of things that I get asked about a lot. Products I own, hobbies I have, and just general things I'd talk about with friends. The baby/kid product I review for friends most frequently has got to be the Joovy Caboose double stroller.

We decided to buy the Joovy when we had our first two kids 18 months apart. My older daughter was too little to sit on the bench seat at 18 months, but she was getting pretty cranky with sitting in the stroller and I couldn't imagine dropping all the money on a double stroller just to have her throw a fit about sitting in it.

There are a few versions of this stroller, and we got the Ultralight because it was smaller and space was an issue for us.

First, The Cons:
*It has a small basket underneath. Yep, it's tiny. If you're going to be shopping all day at the mall and want a place to stash your bags, this won't work. Some cruel moms might make their older kid get out of the jumpseat and walk so that they can pile all their bags in the back of the stroller - uh, not that I've ever personally done this, I'm just sayin' you could. You also can't really even fit a diaper bag under there.

*Lots of people give this stroller negative reviews because the seat doesn't recline very far for a kid to sleep, and obviously sleep is difficult in the jumpseat. This wasn't a concern to me because first of all, my kids aren't really the fall-asleep-in-public type, and second, I'm never really out ALL DAY in the stroller. If I just run to the mall or somewhere, they can come back and sleep at home. I will say that this is my stroller of choice at Disneyland, and we have had some entertaining experiences with the kids falling asleep in it. Once my son fell asleep in the back and we had to tie a blanket around the back handle so he didn't pitch forward and fall out (see below). So, you know, if your kids are sleepers, it's a valid "con," but wasn't one that came up for me personally very often.

*Next, it has a small/useless parent tray. It has a drink holder that will fit a can of soda or a smallish fountain drink, but no big gulp. It has a small zipper pocket and then an upright pocket as well. For me it worked because I travel light, but I've seen lots of complaints online about this. The regular Joovy Caboose does not have a parent tray at all.

*The buckles on the jumpseat are really just for looks. If you have a runner or a kid who is going to fight being back there, these buckles won't exactly do much for ya.

*When the front seat is reclined, it is pretty annoying/uncomfortable for the kid in the jumpseat. And if you have an infant seat in it, it has to be reclined. My kids have been pretty patient with it, but I try to recline it as infrequently as possible. Also, it only has two positions - upright and reclined. And the reclined position is.... well, not very.

So are the pros:
*It is SUPER compact. I mean, really small. It's small folded up, and it's small set up. This was perfect for me, because I drove a Honda Civic, and didn't want my stroller taking up the whole trunk. In fact, I could even fit our Joovy AND our double jogger together in the trunk of the Civic. Impressive, I know. Also, when I thought about places I would be taking a stroller, it was usually places like the library or the mall, where the setting really didn't lend itself to a giant beast of a stroller trying to fit down aisles and between racks of clothes.

*I liked the green color. Shallow, of course. But color's important to me.

*I liked the flexibility of the seating options. We bought this stroller almost 4 years ago, and now we have 3 kids. Someone can sit in the front, someone can sit on the jumpseat, and someone can actually stand on the footstand. Or, if your children happen to be on the more petite side, you can actually fit two on the jumpseat. I should note that Joovy does not recommend or endorse 3 passengers for this stroller, but it can definitely be done.

*I loved taking this to the zoo, Disneyland, etc. because my older kids could jump off to look at something, and then just come jump back on. It's also way easier to get through crowds.

*You can see on the picture there are two big handles for the kid in the back. I frequently use these for my kids who are old enough to walk, giving them a choice of, "You can sit on the seat, stand on the footstand, or walk alongside and hold the handle."

*It maneuvers really easily. I never felt like I was pushing anything more than a single stroller.

*It was the only stroller I needed when out and around. If I happened to be out and about with just one of my kids, I could put them in it and not feel like a nerd with this giant hulk stroller for only one kid.

*It can fit an infant carseat in the front. You take the tray off, and it has another attachment that sort of cradles the back of the infant seat. Then the seat sits down in there, and there are straps that come up, and you buckle them to secure it in.

*Joovy has good customer service. One of my seat buckles broke and they promptly sent me another one, free of charge and no questions asked.


I would make this same decision a hundred times over again, and I have had numerous friends who bought a Graco tell me they should have bought a Joovy. The only other thing that would have been better is a Phil and Ted's since you can use it as a single/double jogger as well, but I wasn't really familiar with that stroller when we got this. But we have loved the Joovy and it has served us well. It does have its drawbacks, but they weren't big ones for us, and the pros have far outweighed the cons.

To me the biggest thing is that for most kids, once they're old enough to have a younger sibling, they're old enough that they don't enjoy riding in a traditional stroller. This is a good middle ground, with lots of flexible options, and continues to be useful and usable even now that my older kids are 4 and 5. Questions? Ask away!

Good Deal at Target on The Biggest Loser for the Wii!

Next time you're at Target, check to see if they have any Wii games on clearance. Ours had the older version of The Biggest Loser for $7! It was on an endcap facing the back of the store, but luckily the nice Target employee pointed it out to me when I told him I wanted to buy the newer version. Again, it is the OLDER version on clearance for $7, not the new one with the blue cover.

We had rented this version through blockbuster.com and it's pretty cool! You can choose Lower Body, Upper Body, Total Body, Abs, and Yoga. Within each of those categories there are 5 different levels, and within those 5 levels there are several different workouts that last various amounts of time. This game is truly a great workout for many different skill levels - I am in okay shape and I stay at Level 3-4. I tried Level 5 one time and couldn't even make it through the workout. The Yoga is both relaxing and toning - you can definitely feel it the next day. You also don't need any special workout equipment. They just use the resistance of your body for strength training, and it's amazingly effective.

So if you're looking for a great indoor workout, stop by your Target and see if they've got this one for $7! If not, the newer version is only $30, which I think is worth it. It's a great workout for a snowy day!

Product Review

Tonight I wanted to tell you guys about a great giveaway opportunity through MOLLY'S CLOTHING. This business is run by a friend of mine, and she's giving away some great prizes in exchange for becoming a fan on Facebook, putting a button on your blog, etc.

Molly's Clothing sells really cute clothing, but my personal favorites are their cami tops. They're thick enough that you can wear them as a shirt, or thin enough that you can wear them under things. My favorite is the Molly's Mini, which hits just under your braline, so if you're wearing it under a dress, it doesn't ride up or bunch under your dress. Uh, obviously this wouldn't be a style you'd wear on its own though. ;)


The other awesome thing is that they have little girls' sizes. You know when you have the perfect dress or cardigan for your daughter, and you're searching everywhere for a plain white shirt to go under it? I have two of these for my daughter, the white and the pink, and she loves to wear them under things to make them more modest, or by themselves. If I can find a picture of my daughter wearing one, I'll come back and post it. I just noticed when I grabbed this picture off their website that these are on sale right now. Uh oh... What other colors do I need?


So go check them out! And while you're at it, join the mailing list to be entered to win some cool stuff!