Boys can eat…

and that is a finer thing!

My twelve year old, Matt, must be having a major growth spurt.

Yesterday, for instance, he ate 3 bowls of cheerios before school.

The boys had an appointment so I went through a drive thru on the way back to school (I know, bad mom).  Matt ate one of the new thick hamburgers from Burger King, french fries and then asked for my fries (which was fine because my hips didn’t need them anyway).

For dinner, he had three heaping bowls of the ham and bean soup I made plus a sleeve of whole wheat crackers.

Then he actually left his friend’s house where all the neighbor kids were playing basketball to make sure that his dad and I had not eaten all of the apple cobbler I made for dessert.  That was just the food he ingested in ONE day!

This boy is obsessed with food!

And it struck me, after reading posts like this, that our ability to feed him whenever he is hungry and have a fully stocked pantry is a finer thing.

A thing that I too often take for granted.

Father God, thank you for the ability to feed my children when they are hungry.  My heart hurts for those children around the world and even in our own backyard that wonder where the next meal is coming and even if it will come.  Watch over them Lord and incite the hearts of your people to do what they can to help.  Help me to always be grateful for the blessings in my life. ~Amen

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.