Let Mabel’s Labels Mark Your Things for Back to School

September 10, 2015 by 52 Comments

I’ve been a big Mabel’s Labels fan for years, and I was delighted that a coupon for an Ultimate Back-to-School Combo kit appeared in my Scout Box from the Savvy Sassy Moms Product Scouts Program. I still have a few labels left from the last order I placed a few years ago, but those adorable designs were starting to be declared “not cool enough” by my oh-so-cool 8- and 10-year-old boys.

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I was happy to see that Mabel has updated her design choices. The tools help you narrow down what you are going to have printed on ALL THE THINGS in the combo pack:

  • 40 Mini Custom Name Stickers: 38mm x 8mm (1-1/2″ x 5/16″)
  • 50 Tag Mates™ Stick On Clothing Labels: 21mm x 10mm (13/16″ x 3/8″)
  • 16 Custom Shoe Stickers: 33mm (1.3″)
  • 2 Personalized Mini Tags: 30mm x 20mm (1-1/4″ x 3/4″)

You definitely want to pick the right colors, design, and text. And since there are only 4 font choices, you will not be paralyzed by indecision…for as long. Here’s what I picked:

mabels labels back to schoolI slapped these labels on backpacks, lunch bags, sweatshirts, bicycles, scooters, helmets, notebooks, scissors, and anything else that went out the door in the first week of school. I keep the very compact folio of many unused labels in the junk drawer near our kitchen, because for us school seems to pick up speed slowly. We are still getting requests for supplies, or the supplies I ordered come in a little bit at a time, so on any given morning there is something I have to slap a label on.

Plus now that I have widened our focus to our last name instead of the kids’ initials, I can use this one pack for both kids, plus Mom and Dad, too. Not that we often have to label our own stuff, but you never know!

Mabel’s Labels Ultimate Back-to-School Pack: $42

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Brushing Teeth With Kids’ Hello Toothpaste

September 8, 2015 by 21 Comments

hello flavors

Since each of my boys sprouted teeth as babies, I’ve only used the toothpaste I could find at my local grocery store, or on occasion, Target. The kids eventually made their preferences known, and they usually choose the watermelon flavor of the major brand’s kids’ toothpaste. Nobody looks forward to brushing his teeth, despite me trying to make it fun and sing-songy, or using those musical toothbrushes, or light up versions, or setting timers, etc. Basically I just say it to them 40 times “Brush your teeth. Brush your teeth. Have you brushed your teeth? Don’t you move a muscle until you brush your teeth.”

But! Then my first Scout Box came – it’s a box of products that I occasionally receive from the Savvy Sassy Moms Product Scouts Program to try, then share on the internets to tell you about them if I really love them:

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Inside, among other products I’ll tell you about later, there were three flavors of a new-to-us toothpaste called Hello.

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…and it had us at “Hello.”

The flavors we received are Bubble Gum, Green Apple, and Blue Raspberry. Bubble Gum and Raspberry emerged as the kid-chosen front runners, and my favorite part about them are that there are no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, triclosan, or dyes. That last one is obvious because the toothpastes are white, not neon green or striped, and when the kids drop some on the bathroom counter, they easily wipe off but in the meantime they are not leaving sticky green glops all over the place. (Somehow white glops aren’t so bad.)

 boy brushing teethReal child using hello on his first day of school. Not staged at all, I promise. (I’m just out of frame in my PJ’s)

The ingredients in the kids’ toothpaste are all listed on the hello website. The company makes an effort to make their products be “earth-friendly” and safe for kids. The price is about the same as the well-known brands, and the product is just better. You can find it in stores or online.

And a bonus – a sample-size of the adult toothpaste came in my ScoutBox so I’ve been using the spearmint flavor and I really love it!

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Meditation Is Good For You: OMG. I Can Meditate! App

May 14, 2015 by 7 Comments

This is my second post in a series about meditation and tools that can help you (here is the first). Several months ago, I told a friend about how I was meditating almost daily and how much I loved it, but that I needed something more, like an app that let you choose what kind of meditation you need. For example, if you’re PMS-ing and you need a coping app, or you need to steel yourself for a difficult meeting happening today, or you want to be more mindful with your children. “There should be an app for that,” I said.

Well. There is one, and it came out of the universe for me to try.

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OMG. I Can Meditate! is a guided meditation program available by subscription. There is a beginner level, in which meditation expert Lynn Goldberg coaches you through learning how to meditate.

I started using this app to meditate in the morning about a month ago. I have confidence in the fact that there is a distinct guided meditation for every day beginning with day one week one. I can’t be consistent and do it every single day, so I’m still only on week three, day 6. However, I have used the app enough times that Lynn’s voice has become familiar and comforting. In each segment her soothing voice guides you through relaxation techniques and using your “attention muscle” to focus on quieting your mind.

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I began this project with the intention of keeping a daily meditation journal. I got as far as day one and then lost my focus. I decided to be kind to myself and just use the app as it fit into my life. That proved to be successful not only with reviewing the app but also with keeping up with the daily meditations themselves. If I miss a day, I don’t kick myself, I just pick it up again the next day. Now every morning when I wake up and come downstairs, pour myself a cup of coffee, get settled on the couch looking out over my beautiful backyard, and start my meditation before everybody wakes up. It’s quiet time just for me and I love it. I suppose I could do this without an app, using some music a candle etc., but having the guided meditation at my disposal makes me do it. It’s easy, it takes the thinking out of the whole process, and makes it more likely that I will simply just do it.

The app has a very long list of features, and weeks and weeks of recorded guided meditations. There are special meditations for kids, for stress, for helping you fall asleep, and more. So far I’ve only used the daily meditations.

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Because it is a new product, it is susceptible to design flaws. I found the app clumsy to get started with, and every now and then the next meditation in the plan will take a very long time to download. And at six in the morning when I’m ready to do my meditation, and it’s not downloaded, my attention will wander and I will check email or Facebook. The opposite of meditation. The app also holds some intrinsic wisdom about you and your readiness for certain meditations. For example I wanted to try one of the relationship meditations, but it told me I wasn’t far along enough in the process to use that one. However, the developers seem to be working overtime – tech support was quick to address my concerns, and since I started using it the app has been updated at least once.

You can try the app for free, but if you want to continue after the first meditation the cost is $9.95 a month, or $5.00 a month if you pay for a whole year in advance. While there are plenty of free meditation apps out there, for that price you get some good value in Lynn’s recordings. I would recommend this for somebody who needs help learning how to meditate. I still don’t even know how to meditate. And I’ve been trying for a very long time.

omg meditate appOMG. I Can Meditate!

I am giving away 10 (TEN!) codes for 3-month trial memberships here at Agoura Hills Mom. Just leave a comment here to enter to win (one comment entry per person please)! Extra entry if you follow Agoura Hills Mom on Facebook or Instagram (one extra entry for each). Winner(s) will be chosen at random from entries received before 11:59 on Friday, May 22, 2015.

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