Thanks a Million

I mostly rely on homemade foods to feed my (always ravenously hungry) crew of guys.  But, as we all know there are days that between basketball practice, church activities and doctors appointments a home cooked meal is just not in the cards.  Rather than spend extra money on fast food in these instances, I often rely on frozen entrees, like those made by Banquet.  My family particularly likes the salisbury steak entrees.

Since Banquet pot pies and other frozen entrees frequently find their way into my deep freezer I was glad to assist in spreading the word about the Banquet Thanks a Million program.  Inside specially marked packages of Banquet foods is the opportunity to win up to $100,000 for your family.  Pretty cool, huh?

So, next time you grab a Banquet meal from the freezer section of your local grocery store, be sure to grab a specially marked package and follow the instructions at the link above to see if you are a winner.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Banquet and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Organized Grocery Shopping

With all our talk of organizing our finances in January, I turned to my favorite organizing program to get my shopping list under control.  When you use coupons, pair them up with circular ad sales and are shopping for hungry tween/teen boys, groceries can be a lot to keep track of.

Cozi makes grocery shopping a breeze for me.  Their online program {which is free by the way} has a grocery shopping component where I add things to my list as I become aware that we need them {much like the days of notebooks with a magnet on the fridge type of running list- do you follow me?}. No more sticky notes for this gal =)

One reason I love this feature is because I tend to misplace a paper list…especially when I am using it to keep a running tab of what I need at the store.  Unless I lose access to a computer, my Cozi list is always there for me.  Even if I forget to bring my list to the store Cozi is there for me {see next paragraph}

Another cool feature is the ability to text messages {to myself or the hubby}.  So, for instance, we are out of milk and I am not in the mood to go to the store.  Hubby is already out.  I can send him a text message via Cozi to pick up the milk or text him the ENTIRE list{or any other reminder…I will talk about the family calendar feature in another post}.

How cool is that?

When you log into your Cozi account you have a dashboard, similar to a homepage.  This has links to coupons.com and a search engine for recipes.  Menu planning can’t get much easier than that.

Those are just a few of the ways Cozi simplifies my grocery shopping.

Not only did I want to share the 411 on this time saving program with you but I also wanted to let you know about a HUGE giveaway that Cozi is promoting.

Cozi is giving away FREE groceries for a YEAR!  Entering is simple {click here} and you can earn extra entries by telling your friends, as well as playing their fun spin to win game.

Here is the fine print:

Cozi 2010 Shopping List Celebration: A Year of Free Groceries Sweepstakes. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY: Open to legal residents of the United States, except Rhode Island, 18 years of age or older at time of entry. Entrants must be physically located in the United States. The sweepstakes begins on January 14, 2010, and ends on March 11, 2010. Limit one entry per manual email address submission (additional entries optional for each friend that clicks through on referral link sent via “tell a friend” tool on cozi.com). All entries and referrals received by March 11, 2010, will be included in a random drawing on or about March 17, 2010. Entrants are responsible for keeping the email address used for entry valid until after the drawing has been conducted to remain eligible to win the prize.

So, what are you waiting for?  Go enter to win some free groceries and check out all that Cozi has to offer while you are there.

Dentyne Review

You all are going to start thinking I have a thing for gum…it’s not me, it’s my boys.  Every, and I do mean EVERY, time I go to the store they are trying to sneak a pack of the newest “coolest” gum into the cart.  My basketball player teen swears chewing gum increases his concentration.  I just sigh and pay for the gum.

Through my relationship with Pink Lemonade I frequently get the opportunity to participate in mega reviews (where a bunch of the contributors share their opinion of the same product).  This time we all got three canisters of the new limited edition (the images on the bottles are by artist, Anthony Yankovic) Dentyne gum.

I like the bottles compared to boxes or sticks of gum because they don’t get lost in my purse. In addition, they fit perfectly in the cup holder of my car.  The bottles come in the three standard flavors of Dentyne- spearmint, peppermint and my personal favorite, Arctic Chill.

My kids (who are tweens/teens) and knew who Anthony Yankovic was thought the artwork on the bottles was “cool” and made them want to share the bottles with their friends.  I guess I’m not that cool

**I participated in this mega review as a contributing writer to Pink Lemonade.  Dentyne provided me with three bottles of gum to facilitate my review.  All opinions expressed are mine (and my kids).

OxiClean Review

As you can imagine, with adolescent boys and a hardworking hubby, there is a lot of laundry getting cleaned at the Smallwood residence.  When I was offered the opportunity to review OxiClean Max Force Power Paks I heartily agreed.  I wanted to see for myself if a product could really get rid of the grass stains from a family game of football, the mud stains the hubby gets on his work jeans and the food stains my youngest gets on the sleeves of his shirts from using his sleeves as a napkin.

I like the convenience of these power paks.  You simply toss them in the washer when you put in the detergent.  They dissolve in the water (warm water works best).

I did find that I needed two packs per load to get the stains out but that just may be because my family of testosterone is really tough on clothes. They come 18 to a pack so that means that a bag would get me through about 9 loads of laundry (aka a week in this house).

You can also pre-soak your clothes with the Power Pak to remove tough stains.  The company recommends soaking for 1-6 hours, depending on the stain.

All in all, these little Oxi Clean power paks can stand up to my mountain of laundry.  Pretty impressive in my book.  This is a brand new product so watch your store shelves come mid February for your chance to purchase them.

**I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of OxiClean and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Aircut Review

I am so excited to partner with Aircut and let my readers know about this innovative product.  Vacuum hair clippers…so cool.  Gone are the days of sweeping hair off the floor after my husband would use clippers on our three boys.  Gone are the days of the boys complaining of the itchy hair on their neck and shoulders- boy, do I wish these had been around 10 years ago!

In the last few years, with the whole I-am-too-cool-for-my-tween-britches thing going on in our home, the boys have been going to the hair salon.  My husband’s philosophy was crew cut or hair salon.

The fabulous thing about the Aircut is that with all the attachments and tapered 1/2″ attachment, Mike can accomodate the boy’s haircut desires without the expense of the salon.

Here is our first experience with the Aircut:

The boys were comfortable with the Aircut and the hubby wasn’t nervous.  In the past, using traditional clippers, some injuries occurred- cutting an ear by accident, etc.  You don’t have to worry about that with the Aircut as the attachments make the possibility of skin contact impossible.

Be sure to visit Aircut’s website for 10 reasons to buy an Aircut and a graph of how much money you can save by cutting your hair at home.

My husband is going to cut his hair next…be on the lookout for that vlog.

**Disclosure:  AirCut is a sponsor of Multitaskingmama.com and provided me with an AirCut to facilitate this review. All opinions are mine and not influenced by anyone.

Green glasses? Who knew…

I was recently offered the opportunity to review the new Airwear ® lenses in my glasses.  The review opportunity came at just the right time, as I had just been given a new (and much stronger) prescription at the opthalmologist’s office.

What I like about Airwear ® lenses:

They are truly light weight.  They are up to 30% lighter than standard lenses and after almost three weeks of wearing them I have certainly noticed the difference.

They are thinner than standard lenses.  The Airwear ® literature says that these lenses are up to 25% thinner than standard plastic lenses.  This is another claim that held up. I have horrible vision and have always had thick lenses that protruded from any type of frame. These don’t! Honest!

You would think that being thinner and lighter, these lenses would not be as strong as standard lenses.  Wrong! These lenses are virtually unbreakable and 12x stronger than standard plastic lenses.  In addition, these lenses provide 100% UV protection against harmful UVA and UVB rays.

Airwear ® is concerned about the environment. This means that not only are the lenses lightweight and strong but they are also recyclable. They are manufactured using 100% recycled water as well.

Be sure to watch the video for my full review and check out Airwear’s website for more information.

Thank you to Mom Central and Airwear for this opportunity.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Airwear and received a pair of Airwear eyeglass lenses to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Trident Layers Review

Being a contributing writer at Pink Lemonade has it’s perks, especially according to my kids.  Every so often a FedEx package arrives with some kind of goody in it for us me to review. When they opened the package (before I got home I might add) they were delighted to see Trident Layers gum.

See my boys are in various stages of the lovely world of orthodontia so they don’t get to enjoy gum very often.  But, for this I made an exception, had them remove their retainers and they chomped down with delight.

Jared and Matt both enjoyed this gum, a little too sweet for this mama’s taste.  They enjoyed the layers of flavor and identifying the flavors.

Trident Layers™ is made with real fruit flavor for an unbelievable taste experience! It has three distinct and visible colored layers that make it as great tasting as it is fun to look at. There is no other gum like it!

Trident Layers received a big thumbs up from both of my kiddos!  Be sure to visit Pink Lemonade for a chance to win some.

Full Disclosure: Trident provided the gum for this review.  The opinions expressed are mine (and my children’s) and were not influenced by receiving the product for free.

Holiday Help to the Rescue

We are all probably feeling the stress (remind me not to ever move during the holidays again, mmm kay?) of the Christmas season, at least a little, right.  Please tell me I’m not the only one!

One site that has helped ease the tension this season is Hellmann’s Real Holiday Helpings.  Sponsored by Hellmann’s (obviously) this site has recipes (from Bobby Flay, no less), coupons, a game (that my youngest has been playing with me) and a chance to win free groceries for a year!

I have been navigating the site for the last couple of days and find it easy to use, full of useful information and best of all, it’s free!  I even became a fan of their facebook page because there are special giveaways and prizes for their fans.

Head over to the site today to get great recipes, enter to win the grocery giveaway and even watch videos of Bobby Flay!

In addition, I have a $25 American Express gift card to giveaway to one of my lucky readers!

All you have to do to enter the giveaway is visit the Hellmann’s site and tell me what recipe sounds good to you!  That’s all (I detest giveaways that are difficult to enter) you have to do!

If you desire additional entries (who couldn’t use $25 this time of year?) you can do the following things after you have made your qualifying entry as listed above:

• tweet about this giveaway (and leave a comment that you did so)
• become a fan of the Hellmann’s FB page (and leave a comment that you did so)
• leave a comment telling me what you would use the extra $25 for

Good luck!

The winner will be chosen via random.org on December 12th.  **This giveaway is open to residents of the United States and Canada only**

Full disclosure: I participated in this review sponsored by Mom Select and Hellmann’s.  I was given a $25 gift card for my participation as well as a gift card for my readers.  The opinions expressed are solely mine.

Hickory Farms Review

For as long as I can remember, Hickory Farms has been a part of the holidays.  My grandmother uses their sausages and cheeses to keep everyone from getting impatient while waiting for the holiday meal to be ready….wait a minute, so do I.  *gasp*  I’ve become my grandmother!

This Thanksgiving was the first I have cooked for my family (yes, I know I am lucky).  We usually go to either my mom’s or my grandmother’s but this year, neither was in the cards.

But, me being a smart multi-tasking mama and all, I stole borrowed my grandmother’s idea and used the Hickory Farms sausage and cheese to make a snack platter.  It was quite successful in keeping the hungry vultures tween boys from whining that the turkey wasn’t ready yet.

Doesn’t that look yummy? (and nicely displayed if I might say so myself)

Our gift box came with two summer sausages and three different types of cheese- Pennsylvania Dutch Edam, Sharp Wisconsin Cheddar and Apple Pie Cheddar.  I love cheese, especially sharp cheddar so that was obviously my favorite.  My boys like the edam cheese, it was very mild in flavor.

So, for future reference, sausage and cheese platters keep hungry boys out of the kitchen on Thanksgiving…and they make great gifts too.

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Hickory Farms and received a Hickory Farms gift basket to facilitate my review.”

Who gets to do the dishes?

Chores- the one word that can bring groans, complaints and have kids running away faster then a speeding bullet.  At least in our house.

Over the years, with three boys, we have tried various methods to handle delegating chores.  We have tried lists, sticker charts, rewards but to be honest I had never thought of making a game out of it.

The thought should have come more naturally, you know like singing the clean-up song when the kids were smaller to encourage them to put away their toys?  But, a mama can run out of ideas.

That is why I was pleased to review the new concept, Deck of Chores.  I was a little skeptical at first as my tween boys don’t take kindly to change in routine.  However, the Deck of Chores changed all that.

The deck of chores is literally a large deck of cards with various chores on them, along with the values of a typical deck of cards- queen, king, jack, etc.  What my boys enjoy about the process is that it is a game of chance.  Instead of knowing you have to do the dishes tonight you might be lucky enough to draw the dusting card.  I have even been able to add chores they didn’t do before like clean out the refrigerator (a chore I will gladly share)

My five year old nephew is visiting us this summer and is enjoying the fun too.  My boys don’t find it very fair that I remove some of the cards before Marcus picks (I think he’s too little to take out the trash LOL) but so far, the Deck of Chores trumps any system I ever came up with!

Thank you to Homemaker Barbi and Deck of Chores for this review opportunity.

*This post published on my old blog this summer, I apologize if this is a repeat post for anyone, but the product is worth looking into*

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