susiej/reviews

This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kelloggs.

No. I don’t insist my kids eat breakfast in the morning. More accurately, I didn’t – past tense. Just for the sake of having stress-free mornings, and getting everyone to school on time, I didn’t push breakfast on the little bellies in my kitchen that just weren’t used to the new morning wake-up time. They weren’t awake enough to even know if they were hungry or not.

Or so I thought.

Besides, I figured, the boy’s teachers provided a daylong snack of pretzels or goldfish – so if they did realize they were hungry before lunch, they could nibble on some carbs.

Yes… the peace in the morning was incredible. The two older boys fixed their own cereal, while the little boys were content to skip their breakfast, simply getting on with the business of brushing their teeth, getting their shoes on and heading out the door.

This idyllic morning routine changed the minute I started researching my post on the benefits of cold cereal. From the Kellogg’s website I learned how valuable those fortified cereals really are in getting nutrients in kids who probably could not find them in any other foods, in that quantity, throughout the day.

The Kellogg’s site also reminded me of some key facts that I had completely forgotten – overlooked. Breakfast helps you think fast. Kellogg’s refers to breakfast as a time to “break the fast” of 8 to 12 hours without eating. Of course the body and brain need to re-fuel.

Hunger is a distraction. And that’s no way to start a school day.

So, now, I insist… on something – and they are now eating a small bowl of cold cereal before they brush their teeth. I got a bit of resistance at first — but nothing earth shattering. And now, it’s just part of their routine.

So, how do you feel about making sure the kids have breakfast? Do you have time for breakfast, or is it something they eat on their way out of the door? BlogHer is giving one of my readers a $100 gift card. All you have to do is leave a comment here to tell me how and if you make sure your kids have breakfast in the morning? There are twenty five other bloggers giving away a $100 Visa Gift Card, so enter their contests too, check BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page to learn more. Official Rules can be found here:

Mom’s Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids’
cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. To
learn more about the program, visit www.betterbythebowl.com.”

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This is sponsored content from BlogHer and ABC’s No Ordinary Family.

My wish? To have the laundry done, folded and put away on the same exact day. Every two days or so, I start three loads of laundry before lunch, each one is almost dried before school is out – sort of, but this is where I get messed up… three loads are never dry by the time the kids get home from school. And there lies the problem. It’s difficult to be attentive to the delicate dryer cycle, making sure I pull everything out and hang it up when it’s “not quite dry” so that there will be no ironing required. By then, instead, the four boys are home from school and I am busy making snacks, answering homework questions and dealing with dinner and play dates. Super speed power would also filter down to the morning hours, enabling me to have the lunches packed faster, and the breakfast dishes cleaned up sooner, so that I could pay bills at lightning speed too.

Speed in the laundry room would be my wish if I were given super speed like Stephanie Powell from ABC’s No ordinary Family, a new fall show. After 16 years of marriage, Jim (Michael Chiklis, The Shield Fantastic Four) feels disconnected from his workaholic wife, Stephanie (Julie Benz, Dexter), and two teenage children, Daphne (Kay Panabaker, Summerland) and JJ (Jimmy Bennett, Star Trek). To encourage family bonding time, Jim decides the family will join Stephanie on her business trip to South America. When their plane crashes into the Amazon River, they barely enjoy a moment to celebrate their survival before returning to the grind of everyday life. Each member of the family starts to show signs of new, unique and distinct super powers. (Check out their Facebook Page for behind-the-scenes updates.

Check out the trailer from the show:

But would these speedy chores make a super powered family? A family is made up of more than fresh laundry that is neatly folded, shirts hanging wrinkle-free, with enough time to spare to make the afternoon snack. Kids won’t notice if there are clean socks in their drawer as soon as they get home from school – but they do notice if you’re not there to hear the little snippets from their day – when they are ready to spill the news. If I were downstairs attending to the laundry, rather than them, they’d have to search me out; and maybe that would be too much effort, and they just wouldn’t. And what would I miss?

But some things just can’t be rushed. Mothering can’t be rushed. It takes time, in my house anyway, for the boys to relinquish their stories from the day. To sit with them long enough during a board game to build a connection, closeness. Otherwise, we will live in what the ABC trailer for the show, No Ordinary Family, says, “We were all living under the same roof, but in different worlds.” Speed? Yes, there isn’t a super mom out there that couldn’t benefit from that super power. Yet, some things, and the most important things, just can’t be rushed.

Because if we want to “always be a family, no matter what happens,” some things just cannot be rushed.

I’d love to hear how you think your life would change if you were to suddenly acquire super powers. You can read what other BlogHer’s are saying on Link to the BlogHer.com review/giveaway round-up page: BlogHer.com’s special offers page.

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This is sponsored content by BlogHer and Kelloggs. When my oldest child, now 14, started first grade, eight years ago, I decided to put the odds in his favor by giving him more than just “breakfast” but a good “hot breakfast” – something that involved me slaving away at the stove at the early hours and lots of clean-up after he was off at school. Omelets with veggies tucked in, strata’s with delicious cheeses, casseroles with animal proteins. I stopped short of gravy and biscuits. Yet, no matter how many eggs I cracked, the boy refused my hot breakfasts. Of course… The boy wanted cereal. Cold cereal. Out of a box. He sent away my warm and cozy comfort foods in favor of something cold. I could have pushed, nagged and pleaded – to no avail. And who wants to send their kid off to school with a struggle over breakfast? Not me. So, I put away the frying pan, and made sure there was always a consistent supply of his favorite, healthy, low-sugar cereals in the pantry. Cereal has been our fast, easy go-to-meal for the last 8 years. Secretly, I loved his preference. Who wants to cook at that hour in the morning? Cereal is ready in seconds, with so little mess. For years, I secretly indulged in the convenience that cereal brought me, and tried to push aside my guilt over the fact that if he wasn’t eating something hot, he wasn’t eating a good breakfast. That was, until I recently visited the Kellogg’s website and learned more than a few comforting facts about ready-made cereal. Cereal, (which comes from the Roman goddess of the harvest, Ceres) is a food derived from the edible grain or seed of nutritious plants, including barley, corn, oats, rice, rye and wheat (depending on the box you choose.) In the U.S. cereal is fortified, making this cold cereal the leading source of 10 nutrients in children’s diets. Ten nutrients that I’m sure my son would probably never find in his diet throughout the rest of the day. How much of an impact do those 10 nutrients make? The Kellogg’s site revealed:

• Breakfast cereal eaters have higher intakes of riboflavin, calcium, as well as vitamins A, B, and D.
• A study in the U.K. found that children ages “4-18 who typically consume 30-40 grams of breakfast cereal daily have a 20-60 percent of iron, B vitamins, and Vitamin D compared with those who do not consume as much cereal.”
• Plus, grains are full of fiber and natural antioxidants.

So, now I can wipe the slate clean on those cold November mornings when I sent my little one off to school, worrying that maybe that cold cereal in his belly wouldn’t be enough to get him through the day. Cereal, is definitely, a great way to start the day. And, with big brother already in the ready-made cereal habit, it didn’t take long for his little brother to follow in his footsteps.

Mom’s Breakfast Club was started to help educate moms and families about kids’ cereal and share the scoop on their nutritional benefits and ingredients. To learn more about the program, visit Better By The Bowl. BlogHer is giving one of my readers a $100 gift card. All you have to do is leave a comment here to tell me what shows up on your breakfast table every morning. There are twenty five other bloggers giving away a $100 Visa Gift Card, so enter their contests too, check BlogHer.com Kellogg exclusive offers page to learn more. Promotion begins 9:00 a.m. (PST) September 14, 2010 and ends 5:00 p.m. (PST) September 20, 2010. Official Rules can be found here:

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This is a sponsored review by BlogHer and Newman’s Own.

It wasn’t long after I started having babies that I learned that if I wanted to place a hot meal on the table by 6:00p.m., I needed to start cooking the meal by 10 a.m. With children around, the “witching hour” rears its ugly head and around 3 in the afternoon, making seemingly “simple tasks” a Herculean effort. Cooking dinner was taxing on my few mental reserves. At 10:00 a.m. the freshness of the morning still had the leftover quietness of the evening, making it a stress-free time to plan the meal and chop the vegetables. It’s no secret here that I like to cook with fresh ingredients, and I rarely rely on canned, processed foods– which would save me time, but cooking things myself gives me that extra edge of trust about ensuring I’m not exposing my kids to extra trans fats. Soon I learned other moms had a whole arsenal of tips and methods to ensure the family meal. was properly cared for and nurtured after. My neighbor said she did the same thing when her kids were little, but with one caveat. “I always started cooking dessert first.” What a paradoxical shift. Why dessert first? Maybe because gelatin was all the rage back then, (the 70s) and she needed the fridge to congeal the mixture to ensure gelatin could be eaten with a spoon, rather than a straw. Still, I there are still days when I don’t have enough time to cook dinner as it is – so adding dessert would ensure one thing: we’d only eat dessert, because that’s all I’d have time to make. Today is one such day. It’s the boy’s first day of school, and I’ve already made an angel food cake (sprinkled with fresh anti-oxidant-rich blueberries) for tonight’s dinner to celebrate. And, guess what else? I’ve run out of time. No chance I’ll have time to cook something wholesome and delicious to match that dessert. In my pursuit of a wholesome meal, I found Newman’s Own Thin & Crispy pizza, made with all-natural ingredients – and a taste that is “picky-eater” approved. Newman’s Own Thin & Crispy pizzas are a convenient way to give the family a quick meal, without breaking the bank or compromising nutrition. NO stands for not only Newman’s Own, but also NO modified food starch, NO sodium nitrate, NO modified cornstarch.

So pleased to give him this meal, after both of us had such a hard day. Mati Nui is even ready to stand guard over his own slices; no brother would dare steal his own share of this wholesome pizza. So, on those morning when I do get behind the 8-ball, and I can’t get dinner fixed, I know it takes only 10-12 minutes for a Newman’s Own Thin and Crispy frozen pizza to bake to perfection — at about half the cost of take-out pizza. How do you get the meal on the table for your family? Leave a comment below to explain how you do it, “despite the witching hour.” With your comment, I’m giving away a Newman’s Own Gift Basket valued at $75. Contents may vary. Newman’s Own Foundation continues Paul Newman’s commitment to donate all profits to charity. Over $300 million has been given to thousands of charities since 1982.” Your chance to win is open from 9/1—9/30/2010. Click here for the official rules.

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Probiotics, those essential microorganisms we’ve heard so much about lately, because they boost your immune system and restore digestive balance, are everywhere in the dairy aisle. Yogurt, we’ve always believed, is the vital carrier for these essential live cultures. Whether you want to eat it with a spoon, drink it or slurp it, there’s no shortage of yogurt-based drinks with labels touting those Latin names – everything from bifidobacteria to Lactic acid bacteria.

Chocolate, it turns out, is a much better carrier for these microorganisms. Chocolate — no kidding.

A study done at the University of Ghent in Belgium found that 80 percent of chocolate-based probiotics pass safety through the stomach vs. 20 percent of milk/yogurt drink-based probiotics. The cocoa butter in the chocolate protects the probiotics, eliminating the need for refrigeration, for up to one year – No need for refrigeration.

Joseph Maroon, MD and author of The Longevity Factor: How Resveratrol and Red Wine Activate Genes for a Longer and Healthier Life, worked with Maramor Chocolates to create an entire line of chocolates fortified with essential probiotics. These chocolate bars are individual wrapped (just one per day) and are packed with microencapsulated probiotics. A single bar of dark chocolate is 80 calories; 70 calories for milk chocolate.

Maramor sent me two box samples of both the milk and dark chocolate probiotic bars. Once I read the fact sheet about how healthy the chocolate was, I expected to taste cardboard.

I was wrong; and I was surprised. The taste of this chocolate is very good; addictively good; and my kids are sneaking chocolate bars out of the box when they think I’m not looking.

I don’t mind the the security of knowing that at least they’re eating something healthy, which just happens to taste delicious.

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Just one of the phrases I’ve been hearing repeated lately by my coach for the Wii.

I’m into week three of my compensated review from BlogHer and EA Sports Active for the Wii.

Here are my measurements to date:

• Height 62″
• Bust 35″
• Waist: 29.5″ — dropped 1.5 inches!!
• Hips: 38.5″
• Upper thigh 20″ — dropped one!
• Weight: Two weeks ago: 133
• Last week: 129 !!!!
• Today! 127!!! Six pounds lost so far!

I will add that this week has been one of the most stressful weeks I’ve had for a very long time; so this may have something to do with it. But still, I am enjoying my little 30 minute workouts with the Wii, and seeing if I can beat the little calorie burn sessions. I seem to have no problem going over the calorie burn rate — and I am not sure how EA Sports Active for the Wii figures that out, but it sure feels great when I see those calories burning.

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As I officially started my 30-day challenge, as part of my compensated review from BlogHer and EA Sports Active for the Wii, I’m usually doing the workouts with an audience as the boys are now school-free. Besides, if there is a TV or a Wii game on in this house, all of the males in my house must be present. And you know what, I’m fine with that. I let them synchronize the Wii balance board, and pick out my hair color and body type. (Actually, I did that one, as the boy’s don’t understand the power of postive thinking… pick out the skinniest chick on the screen, as something to aspire to.)  My little Wii person looks pretty good – I’m wearing a blue t-shirt, hat and sunglasses of course, and a cute hat; outfit courtesy of the boys.

So, as I’m working my way through the in-line skating, which asks me to literally jump into the air, as if I’m jumping off the ramp, (actually, it’s kind of fun), my boys, experts as they are on these video games, start explaining to me that all I have to do is “lift the numchuck up in the air, and then you don’t have to jump!”

Let me explain: The numchuck is actually stuck in a little pocket in the leg band that is velcroed around my upper thigh. This allows The Wii to track how high, and even if, I’m jumping. If I pull out the numchuck from its little pocket, and lift my arm up in the air, Wii will think I am actually jumping, when I would in fact just be lifting my hand.

Of course, this wouldn’t be as much fun as actually jumping the ramps, and nor would it burn as many calories; so it’s counterproductive to the goal here. Although, definitely, the lazy way around things.

So, when I’m done, the boys take their turn and give the in-line skating a whirl, using only their hands. And Guess what? The Wii knows you’re cheating. The wrist has a way of naturally spinning that numchuck around in a way that it knows the thigh can’t do… and pretty soon, the coach starts admonishing you with messages like these: “You’re going to have to put a bit more effort in this if you want to start seeing results.”

What a slam. So, just keep the numchuck in your little pocket, and do the routines like you’re supposed to. Because, the Wii knows if you’re cheating. No getting around it.

Check out the progress of the rest of the BlogHer reviewers and enter to win one of 5 copies of EA Sports Active.

Please check out the official EA Sports official site for more information: EA Sports Active official site.

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There are a scant 20-30 pages left of this historical novel, Stealing Athena,by Karen Essex; How will see tie the loose ends in the few pages left in this epic that spans centuries with parallel epics that cover art, romance and sex? Lady Elgin is in a perilous predicament with her husband — something even her own money and royal line can’t protect her from; while Lord Elgin uses her money to recover the Greek treasures. (What will become of her children?) Aspasia, courtesan lover of the great Pericles, has betrayed him with a secret, shaking the freedom of the artist who create the great sculptures.  Essex has roped me in with her historical facts of Napoleon’s ravages during the war, the customs of the Turks, where Lady Elgin served as an ambassador with her husand, the erection of the Greek Statues, mingled with the human, day-to-day drama of human weakness and passion.

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The longer I listened and learned from the Total Transformation Program, the more I began to believe that ineffective parenting causes problem behavior in children. While driving in my car, listening to behavioral therapist James Lehman on the audio CDs explain how to handle Oppositional Defiant Disorder in children, I realized how I had been setting my own kids up to misbehave. The good news is, the program shows you step by step how to stop what you’re doing, so you can reverse the spiral of bad behavior. A big thanks to the Parent Bloggers Network for introducing me to this educational series.

For example; one of my sons has learned that if he throws a REALLY big fit about taking out the garbage, I will still make him take out the garbage; but I probably won’t ask him to do it again. This kid is totally manipulating me; and he knows it. I shudder to think of the example I’m setting for his brothers.

We have heard the advice before: Set clear limits for our children, and let them experience the consequences of their actions. But as parents, we need to be reminded. Sometimes, our children have health, emotional or behavior issues that “they just can’t help,” and we become lax at enforcing the limits and rules we’ve set for everyone else in the family. Soon, this becomes a habit, and kids begin to think, “It’s OK if I don’t have to do my chores when I get home from school, because I’m worn out from the kid who bullied me all day.” Lehman explains that the real world will not compensate our kids for their excuses. It’s up to parents to teach our kids to take responsibility for their own behavior, and to learn to function and lead a productive life with whatever handicaps they may have.

As parents we can feed the monster of giving our kids “special treatment” without realizing that we’re setting our kids up to be defiant.

Can you imagine trying to negotiate yourself out of a speeding ticket when the officer walks up to your car? It doesn’t work; I’ve tried it. But, as Lehman explains, when we let our kids negotiate their way out of what’s expected of them, we’re not being fair to our children. We’re giving our kids a false sense of the way the world works. Life will be especially difficult for our children if we force them to learn the reality of self-responsibility as adults.

The Total Transformation Program starts with an Introduction DVD. This was my least favorite part of the program; some of the acting, I felt was difficult to watch. From there, you start the 7-audio lessons, one per week, that really take you into the meat of the program. Each lesson is presented by Lehman himself. I listened to these in the car; over and over again whenever I needed a pep talk. The CDs include examples, and direct strategies you can implement immediately; and lead you to self examination about the type of language you’re using with your children, and the “type” of parental behavior you need to change.

There is also a 118-page workbook that helps you identify which type of behavior problems you are having. Recognizing and understanding the problem is the first step to recovery, and I am currently doing the workbook four times, one time for each child. Each child is different.

The program demands time, work, and introspection. The price tag for the complete program, is hefty: $327. Still, how much would a year in therapy cost? However, the program is guaranteed to work for you or your money back. You pay only $19.00 for shipping and handling ($25 to Canadian destinations). If, and only if, you decide to keep the Total Transformation Program after the completion of the 30-Day Free Program Trial, the cost is three monthly payments of $109.00.

You can also sign up for the Parental Support Line, which is $1 for the first 30 days, and $29 per month after that. If you want to check out James Lehman and what he has to offer, sign up for his Empowering Parents enewsletter. (Sign up is on the bottom of the page.)

Check out the free trial at The Total Transformation Website. It could easily change your life — as well as the life of your kids.

Tags: parenting, products, self-help, teen by SusieJ
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