Is your Target doing the frozen food deal?

So SOME Targets are doing a deal this week (ending today, sorry) where you get a $5 gift card when you buy any 7 frozen food items. You can find bags of frozen veggies, etc. for close to a dollar, making this a really good deal! Here is a link over at Creative Couponing describing some of the deals you can get and linking to a few printable coupons. I'm not big into couponing (although I wish I was) but this was easy enough that even I could do it! There is no limit to the number of $5 gift cards you can get in the transaction.

I got:

10 frozen Smart Ones dinners
1 bag sweet potato fries
7 bags of Target brand frozen veggies, and
3 bags of Birds Eye steamers frozen veggies

I think my total was about $33, with $15 back in gift cards. So around $18 for 21 items. I did use one or more printable coupons for each item. Not anything phenomenal, but these are things we buy regularly and will use, so I'm excited! Not to mention I live in an area where the cost of food is much higher than most places, so I can't even imagine how others could do on this deal!

Giveaway Winner!

Random.org designated Jill as the winner of the book giveaway! Jill said, "Definitely sounds like it could be a resourceful book :)"

Jill, e-mail me your address at simplycleanliving@gmail.com and I'll send a book out to you this weekend! Hope you join in the discussion!

How-Tuesday: How to Avoid Awkward Situations With Other Moms (Sometimes)

I read this tip a long time ago and have used it in many situations since then. Memorize this magic line, "Sorry, I know I'm a totally overprotective mom, but...."

Am I an overprotective mom? Nope. Not that I know of. In fact, I would say I err on the side of underprotective. :) But it works in so many situations where you feel the problem is the other mom's kid, but you don't want (or need) to say so. It puts the blame onto yourself, (hopefully) sparing your friend's feelings

You can use this in situations where you don't agree with the other mom's carseat use (or lack thereof), when someone else's kid is a bully and the mom doesn't seem to know or care, a party where you don't feel there's going to be enough supervision, and so on.

Try it out next time you're stuck in an awkward situation with a friend!

Book Giveaway! The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

So I posted a while ago about Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project, a book I read and really loved. It's about finding the happiness and joy in your life, and concentrating on what truly makes YOU happy. I've decided to do a giveaway of the book to a Simply Clean Living reader with the hopes that there will be at least one person out there to read along with me and share their thoughts on the book! There's great stuff in there on marriage, parenting, organization, career, finances, and lots of other topics.

So if you're interested, leave a comment below before Wednesday at midnight. I'll pick a winner on Thursday and get the book sent out from Amazon.com. Check out the reviews here!

How-Tuesday: How To Potty Train Your Child in 3 Days

I just finished successfully potty training my third child, who is 27 months old.  Two year ago when I had to potty train my twins I knew that I needed some rock solid advice so I did what I always do and went searching online to find some answers.

I decided to go with Lora Jensen's 3 Day Potty Training program.  I bought her online book for around $20 (not sure what the price is today) and it was the best decision I could have made.  Her methods are simple, very natural and very logical, which is right up my alley.  Plus, if you need it, you get online support for any snags you run into.  I personally didn't need the support hotline, but it was nice to know it was there.

I trained my boy girl twins at 28 months of age, at the same time, in 3 days.  It worked.  And then I trained my other littl boy two weekends ago and it worked like a charm again.  Actually, he had his "ah ha" moment the morning of the first day and the next two days were just for good measure.

I highly recommend this lady's method and can honestly say that it worked for me on three kids.  Three cheers for NO MORE DIAPERS!

No-Obligation Book Club - Gretchen Rubin's "The Happiness Project"

So I bought a book. Although I love reading, this is actually a huge milestone for me because I generally only read books once, and I hate clutter, so I only ever read books from the library. Or in bits and pieces at Barnes and Noble. But I recently got a Nook, which has opened some new reading horizons for me. I saw this book online at my local library and just finished reading it, and it was so good I decided I needed to buy the "real" version immediately. Here's a good quote that tells what it's about: "Rubin is a bestselling author who decided to take on the subject of what makes humans happy, resulting in a personal memoir about her own experiences and experiments in improving her mindset, as well as scientific research, philosophical theories, and practical advice on the topic of improving your sense of happiness and well-being.--blisstree.com"

It's so good, and my head is just spinning with blog posts to write about each chapter. If anyone out there wants to buy or check out the book (it's only $8 on Amazon right now for the pre-order paperback version) and discuss, I'd love some company. Otherwise I'll just share all the cool stuff I got out of it.

For a resolution-junkie like myself, it's absolutely addicting. But she shares a ton of great information about happiness, and has some EXCELLENT advice on marriage and parenting. And if you're not married or don't have kids, she also focuses on having more energy, your career, finances, spirituality, expanding your horizons, and lots of other great stuff. So if anyone's looking for a good read, I'd highly suggest it. As soon as my copy comes in the mail, I'm going to start putting up a post about each chapter and I'd love to hear your thoughts!

PS: I totally stole the title of "No Obligation Book Club" from Real Simple magazine because I like it and it makes me laugh!

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!