Are Organic Products Worth The Money? THESE Are!

Disclosure Statement:  This post wasn't supposed to be a promotional post. Yes, I was given a few products by a friend, but was not asked to blog about them specifically. That decision was my own. Similarly, all opinions here are mine and I do not feel in any way obligated to render favorable judgment on those products.

JJ's Wellness Products which she handed me today

I am not an “organic mom.” Kids who come over my house after school for snack get pretzels, chips, and probably a handful or two of grapes. “Where are all the organic foods?” a child may ask. “Back at YOUR house,” comes my cheerful reply. Still, if I can sooth a cough without over-the-counter drugs or take my make-up off with coconut oil, I will, more because those remedies are cost-efficient, rather than organic. 

My friend, JJ, IS an organic mom who goes out of her way to make sure her family is exposed to only the purest ingredients in all that she buys. The really cool thing about JJ however, is that she doesn't preach this stuff. She quietly lives it by example. Oh, she'll give you advice if you ask, but she isn't OBNOXIOUSLY organic. So when JJ quietly showed up at my car window during school pick-up today, handed me a bag containing a few products, and asked if I'd give her my opinion, not only did I say, “yes,” but I offered to blog about them for two reasons: 1) I was suffering from writer's block 2)  I like JJ and it would give her company some exposure. I only hoped, before I opened the products, that the exposure would be GOOD (oh yes, I have written quite a few honest, but unfavorable reviews, people, friendship notwithstanding!).

Calming Salve - clearly she knows my children

JJ's Wellness offers materials and seminars which, she says, enhance her client's health. The first product I tried was her Calming Salve; it's 100% non-toxic and boasts ingredients like beeswax, coconut oil, Vitamin E, and lavender/tangerine/orange oil. I dipped my finger in and spread some of the salve on my lips. The consistency is of thin wax, meaning you could kiss someone after putting this on and not be worried about leaving a big mess on the recipient's cheek. It smelled like tea and my nose picked up the hints of citrus. Part of me wanted to dissolve it in water since it smelled like herbal tea.  Because the salve is so airy, it goes on nicely over your lip stain. This product is something I WANT to put on, as opposed to other lip balms I HAVE to put on after my lips get chapped and bleed. JJ said her price point for a one ounce sample of this product is $6; I like that because again, with the lightness of this balm, a container will last at least a season or two.

One of JJ's Lotion Bars - Calming (ahhhhh...)

Product Number 2 is JJ's Handcrafted Lotion Bar. She gave me two samples of “Calming”, which are gluten and preservative free and made with, of course, only organic ingredients. The bars came on a lovely silver-looking tray and look more like white chocolate candy than lotion. The feel, as with the salve, is light. I rubbed a bar on my hand and, once more, a gentle tea-like fragrance wafted up my nose. Because the lotion is not greasy, it was easy to resume typing on my keyboard without making my computer slippery. JJ told me she designed these lotion bars for mothers who wanted to moisturize their babies without having to dip their fingers into jars of lotion or squeeze goo into their hands. Unlike other lotions which, after using them, have me frantically searching for the nearest piece of cloth to wipe my hands on, JJ's product makes moisturizing self-contained. I'm keeping one in my kitchen for use after washing dishes and on my bureau to use as part of my morning routine. 

JJ's price point for the lotions is $6 for the set which is good.  I can see one bar of the lotion lasting a month easily.  If you were to nab a pretty soap tray from the Dollar Store and combine it with her package of lotions, it would make a really nice teacher's or coach's gift for the holidays, as would the salve on it's own. These products would also be great, practical stocking stuffers.

For more information on JJ's products, visit jjswellness.com. I'm bookmarking her website because not only are her products great, but honestly, the site contains a lot of cool information from a woman who knows all about wellness but doesn't make you feel stupid or inadequate if you don't.



Again, for FTC Purposes,  Disclosure Statement:  This post wasn't supposed to be a promotional post. Yes, I was given a few products by a friend, but was not asked to blog about them specifically. That decision was my own. Similarly, all opinions here are mine and I do not feel in any way obligated to render favorable judgment on those products.

Thanks for reading!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes! Yes! CVS! Now, Let's Review Some Of Their Products

I am very happy about the news that CVS will stop selling tobacco products as of October (click here for more info: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/05/271906167/cvs-to-stop-selling-tobacco-products). As someone who grew up with two chain-smoking parents, I was aware from a very early age,  that what I was breathing was bad. The smoke coated my throat and stuck in my nose, but I had no choice – I had to breathe. The worst was when my father would blow smoke in my face, presumably because the expression I made was cute, but it was a horrible experience. How many parents blow cancer-causing agents in their own child's face?! What an (&*!


Because of my experiences growing up, I have always HATED tobacco and took a stand against it whenever I could. When I was dating, I would not date a smoker. Sorry, but the pleasure of your company is not worth the health risk from hanging around your smoke. And at my wedding, more than 20 years ago, I ticked plenty of people off when I insisted that we have a non-smoking wedding, something that was unheard of then. I made the catering hall remove all ashtrays from the banquet room and personally printed up signs that said “No Smoking.” My husband's aunt was aghast! “I love you because you're family, but I hate you because you won't let me smoke,” she said. Tough! My husband and I were not spending all that money so that the food could be tainted with carcinogens and my dress made smelly by smoke.


Anyway, I am VERY happy about CVS' decision, even though I'm sure their motives are profit-driven, and in honor of their decision, have decided to review some of the products I've bought there. Note that their decision does not affect my reviews. I just thought it would be nice to evaluate some of their products. Here we go:

1. CVS Baby Wipes – We still use wipes to clean hands, wipe faces, take off make-up, etc. CVS Wipes are great for this and are a fraction of the cost of name-brand wipes. They're not as thick as some other brands, but for what I'm using them for, they're fine. Oh, and do not keep these or any wipes in the car if you live in a cold climate. These suckers freeze, obviously, because there's water in them.
   
   
2. CVS Diapers – When my kids were in diapers, we tried every brand imaginable because the cost of diapers was so high. CVS Diapers cost less than the name brands and did not perform as well. My kids could never make it through the night dry if they were wearing one, although I did keep them in the car for emergencies. My recommendation: go with Pampers or Huggies and skip these.
   
   

3. 

   My favorite thermometer!

   CVS Digital Thermometer – We keep a few thermometers in the house because it seems that whenever I need one, either the battery fails or I can't find the darn device. I've tried various brands and the CVS Digital Thermometer is the most reliable and beeps the fastest. It's great for oral and underarm temps. Love it!
   
   
4. CVS Artificial Tears Lubricant Eye Drops – Both hubby and I suffer from allergies and these drops have been wonderful for relieving itchy, allergic eyes. They're very soothing and work great.
   
   
5. CVS Eyelid Wipes Moist Pads – Hubby bought these to help with his previously-mentioned allergies and I tried them. Yuck! They're so saturated with cleanser that they got into my eyes and I had to wipe them with a tissue. They made my eyes sting and are gross. Skip these and buy Visine Total Eye Soothing Wipes instead.
   
   
6. CVS Gold Emblem Zero Calorie Sweetener – This Maltodextrin-Sucralose concoction sweetens my coffee just as well as Splenda and doesn't cost as much. The only downside is that one packet contains 24 grams of carbs versus Splenda's 0 carbs.
   
   
7. CVS Skin Cleansing Cream – We know that soap dries your skin so you should use a cleansing cream to wash your face. Hubby was buying Cetaphil, but the CVS Skin Cleansing Cream does just as good a job as that, but at a much lower price. Having grown up with Noxema, I like the tingling-feeling I get when I use it and the scent is refreshing.
   
   
8. CVS Gold Emblem Baked Cheese Snack Crackers – If you're looking for something to put in the kids' snack bags, grab these! They're crispy, just salty enough, non-oily and don't leave an aftertaste like some generic cheese crackers do. Keep them in your car for when the kids get hungry on the go.
   
   
9. CVS Flexible Plastic Ear Cleaners – I had heard that you're not supposed to use cotton-tipped swabs in the ears because you can do some real damage to your ears and actually push wax deeper into the canal. So when I saw these, I asked my ear specialist about using them as an alternative to get excess wax out of my ears. She said NOT to use them because the potential for doing damage is great. She suggested using ear cleaning drops or just plain old peroxide-diluted-with water. Nothing against CVS' ear cleaners – you just shouldn't poke ANYTHING in the ear canal EVER.
   
   
10. CVS Gold Emblem Sea Salt & Vinegar Almonds - Scientific evidence suggests that eating nuts, such as almonds, might reduce the risk of heart disease, so we gave these a try. They've got a nice sour-salty taste and a satisfying crunch. As with all nuts, however, you want to watch portion size because they're high in fat. But they are YUMMMY!
    

By the way, I'd heard that CVS has a money-back guarantee on all beauty products, so I tried it out when the pink lipstick I bought turned out to be more neon than rose. CVS took the opened package back, which I brought with my receipt, and they refunded the full price – no questions asked. Sweet!

Many also contain a Minute Clinic staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants.  On my insurance, a visit to one is billed at the same rate as a doctor's visit, but you don't need an appointment.  Recently, when my husband got hurt, he went to the nearby Minute Clinic where a PA examined him and advised him to head to an Urgent Care for stitches.  She told him not to go to the Emergency Room because, on average, there's a 2-hour wait there and she knew, for a fact, that the Urgent Care was open and able to do stitches.  She did not charge him for the visit, since she hadn't done anything; other medical professionals would definitely have billed him just for being seen.  My husband respected the PA's thoroughness and integrity. 

Thanks to their no-tobacco policy and our experience with the Minute Clinic, if given the choice of going to CVS over Rite-Aid or Walgreens, I'll be taking my business here. We vote with our dollars, folks! Use your vote wisely!


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Thanks for reading. Please check back in with me over the weekend. After Tuesday's ice storm, we're due for a few more inches of snow here on Sunday and it's funny – whereas we would have been concerned about 3” of precipitation earlier in the season, now it's not even worth a glance. Perspective is an ever-changing thing....

Product Reviews For Today: Kirkland Vs. Name-Brand. Do You Agree?

I remember how I felt the first time I entered a membership warehouse club:  gleeful, giddy.  It was like Christmas morning.  There was SO much stuff in massive containers at such cheap prices!  Like most rookies, I bought multiple quantities of everything I usually bought (Barilla pasta, Life cereal, Horizon milk, etc.) before seeing how much cheaper the house equivalents were.  But is the quality really, truly, honestly the same?

Lots of websites say it is.  According to DailyFinance.com (http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/07/13/10-products-to-always-buy-generic), the top ten things you "should" buy at warehouse clubs are:

1.  Over-the-counter medications
2.  Cereal
3.  Pantry staples.
4.  Soda
5.  Gasoline
6.  Electronic cables (?!)
7.  Make-up other beauty products
8.  Batteries
9.  Salad mix and produce.
10.  Baby formula

No, no, no, no, no!  Fresh stuff goes bad when you have a small family like I do.  Are we REALLY going to eat four pounds of oranges before they rot?  Mine won't even when they swear on a stack of Bibles or video games that they will.  I recently threw out a bunch of oranges with so much Penicillin growth it could saved half the population of Africa.  And baby formula?  My babies were done with formula while I still had boxes of that c*ap left.  Sometimes parenthood gets trumped by economic common sense.

Costco's house brand is called Kirkland Signature.  According to the website Brand Culture, Kirkland "demands superiority" over name-brand goods (http://www.brandculture.com/the-one-brand-breaks-all-rules-costco-kirkland-signature ).  And I do, in fact, buy some of the Kirkland products, so here's what I think of them, especially as they compare to name-brand items:

1.  Kirkland Facial Tissue - I don't busy fancy schmancy tissues with aloe, Vitamin E, or any other trendy stuff on them.  Tissues are where you put boogers when they piss you off (or, in the case of my kids, when Mom tells you to stop using your shirt).  The Kirkland stuff is just as good as your basic Kleenex and buying tissues in bulk is never stupid since they never expire.  Plus, you know you're going to need them at least several times a year.  If you've got the room to store them, I'd recommend you buy Kirkland tissue.

2.  Kirkland Cheese Pizza - If I'm making frozen pizza it's because I don't feel like cooking or because the teen has his mega-hungry posse over.  My kids and most I know are not fussy about what kind of pizza they eat.  Label it Pizza, make sure it has sauce and cheese on it, and you could probably cut down on what you put the curb on recycling day by using up your leftover cardboard.   Kirkland is decent, it's cheap and easy, and I don't taste much of a difference from some of the name brand frozen pizza like Tombstone or DiGiorno.  It's not everyday food; it's "just in case we have a lot of kids I need to feed cheaply" food.

3.  Kirkland Organic Diced Tomatoes - We eat a LOT of crock pot chili in the winter and I get tired of lugging individual cans home from the supermarket.  That's why I buy a case of this stuff from Costco.  The quality is the same as Eden Organic or Hunt's but not much cheaper.  If you can store it, go for it.

4.  Kirkland Bottled Water - I bought this during the summer for the kids to take to camp.  They came home and they told me they'd rather be dehydrated than drink this drek.  Compared to other brands, Kirkland has a slightly soapy taste.  Sure, it's better than drinking my town's tap water which is chemically, but here's where I'd rather spend a few extra pennies on stuff the kids will actually drink. 

5.  Kirkland Bath Tissue - Just as with tissues, bath tissue is a "keep this c** off your hands" receptacle for human waste.  I don't need it to have any bells and whistles so I buy it as cheaply as possible.  Hubby doesn't like Kirkland because it's not as gentle on his manly posterior as other brands, but the cost more than makes up for that.  I mean it's not sandpaper.  We use it, I have the space to store it in, and he deals with it. 

6.  Kirkland Canola Cooking Spray - Supposedly this stuff "compliments the natural flavor of food."  I don't care.  All I need it to do is keep meals from sticking to the pan.  It tastes like Pam, works like Pam, but was $2 cheaper this week than the name-brand stuff.  I bought it. 

7.  Kirkland Salted Almonds - BUY THEM if you like almonds!  They're crunchy, salty, and, for me,

We can't get enough of this healthy snack!

irresistible.  They're just almonds and salt and taste much better than their Blue Diamond counterparts.  Highly recommended! 

8.  Kirkland Ground Saigon Cinnamon - A "what the h**l was I thinking" purchase, according to my cinnamon connoisseur spouse, this brand is not as flavorful as McCormick's.  I wish it was because he's not using it as much as he was the name-brand (he puts it on cereal, oatmeal, cookies, in yogurt) and I may be passing this very container down to my grand kids. 

9.  Kirkland Walnuts - Same stuff as the more expensive brands, MUCH bigger package, and we consume them with gusto.  They can go bad so keep them in the fridge for up to 6 months or freeze them for up to a year. 

10.  Kirkland Baby Wipes - My kids are LONG out of diapers, but we still buy these for cleaning faces, washing hands in the car, taking off make-up, etc.  They're not as soft as some of the name-brand wipes and are a bit thinner than Johnson's.  When my kids were babies, I spent extra on the name brand wipes because these just weren't as good.  Now that we're not using them on babies, they're perfectly fine for general cleanup.

Again, some of the things to consider when you're buying these, or any products from a warehouse is whether you have enough room to store the stuff and whether you're really going to go back to the warehouse just to return one item that doesn't perform the way you wanted it to.  If you have the room and you don't need top-quality stuff, Kirkland is fine for a monthly trip.  Is the quality better?  Sometimes, but there's no guarantee.  It's up to you, as the buyer, to beware.

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Thanks for reading.  Please recommend this blog to your friends, relatives, acquaintances,  manicurist, pizza delivery person, etc.  I hope to see you again in a day or so.

10 Website Recommendations & Reviews

Oh, I remember these!

So my husband finally read my blog yesterday and said my article on Fashion was "not my best work."  Guess who's having kibble for dinner tonight?  Anyway, he also rolled his eyes at my review of Vintage Seltzer, despite the fact that we spend probably hundreds of dollars on seltzer because we drink so much of it.

Thanks to his derision, I have decided to dedicate this blog post to 10 Website Recommendations & Reviews (not in any particular order) .  Again, I echo the sentiment expressed in my first post that these are merely my unbiased opinions and hold as much credibility as you give me. 

1.  Freerice.com (www.freerice.com)- If you love to play vocabulary games online and love to help people, this is a place for you!  According to the site, learning new vocabulary has lots of benefits (yada, yada, yada) including helping you write more effective papers, emails, letters, etc.  So how does Freerice help people?  For each answer you get right, the site's sponsors donate ten grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger.  Okay, so ten grains doesn't sound like much, but if millions of people play, that's a lot of rice.  Freerice.com offers a bunch of different subjects (math, science, geography, art history, etc.) and you can play in different languages.  When you get a question wrong, the site will repeat it a few turns later to give you a second chance at it.  So you learn while those who are hungry get fed.  It's a win-win and an enjoyable site to play on.

2.  KidsSpell.com (www.kidsspell.com) - Type in your kids' spelling lists and, bippity-boppity-boo, those words will be inserted in some online games your kids can play. The games are fun and a great alternative to mindless video games.  Tip Alert:  If you have more time on your hands, grab your kids' spelling words and some paper and make a Spelling Word Bingo Game.  I did this last year with graph paper, some slips of paper used as markers, and index cards.  Diva went to town and we wound up taking the game on vacation with us, plus she bragged to her friends that her mom makes board games.  I got an extra tight hug out of that 10-minute effort.  Yeah!

3.  KidsKnowIt.com (http://www.kidsknowit.com) - I think KidsSpell is part of this totally free learning network and it is amazing!  It's mission is "To Provide The Highest Quality Educational Activities, Products, Movies, Music, Games, Articles, Text Books, Learning Programs, Lesson Plans, Worksheets, And Distribute Them Completely Free of Charge."  They have tons of games to help anyone learn Chemistry, Geology, Math, Improve Memory, and more.  It's also a terrific site for those of us who have forgotten some of what we learned in school and need to help our kids with their homework. 

4.  Coursera (https://www.coursera.org) - A great website for adults, it allows you to choose from more than 400 online courses which you can take for FREE!  Sign up, watch some short video lectures, take interactive quizzes, complete peer graded assessments, and interact live with your new classmates and teachers.  Amazing!

5.  Freebies At About.Com (http://freebies.about.com) - This site offers freebies every day, however, some are not really "free."  Depending on the offer, they'll ask you to "like" them on Facebook which can mean they are at liberty to post on your Facebook page.  Yeah, I'm not doing that.  Also, if you don't respond to the offers immediately, they're often sold out.  This is a fun site to peruse, but don't get your hopes up that you're going to get oodles of freebies here. 

6.  Reader's Digest (www.rd.com) - You see the magazine while you're on the Checkout line at the supermarket.  "Oh," you think, "my Nana had that on her coffee table," so you don't pick it up.  BIG MISTAKE!  Reader's Digest is a great source of advice, jokes, games, cartoons, and stories.  But don't buy it - read it online for FREE without the annoying advertising cards that fall out of the paper version. 

7.  Eat This, Not That (http://eatthis.menshealth.com/home) - I don't know if you've seen the book series Eat This, Not That which basically offers healthy alternatives to foods you may already be eating.  The site is fantastic because I've learned which restaurants habitually load their dishes with extra fat and calories.  Anyway, Eat This, Not That is chock-a-block full of lists of things like healthy desserts, the best groceries to buy, foods you "should" eat every day, etc.  What I especially love is their ratings of which restaurants are the healthiest to eat in and which to avoid like the plague.  A MUST site for when you travel, hubby learned that his favorite restaurant which he frequented on business was really loading even their salads with extra fat (their "grilled" chicken turned out to be 800 calories).  Just beware that if you sign up for their newsletter you will get a few emails/advertisements every single day.

8.  Cozi Family Calendar (www.cozi.com) - This free online calendar helps you manage the family's calendar.  You can color code activities for family members and each person can download the free app to tap into your family's calendar so everyone can see who's doing what and when.  You can also set it so that once a week, each member will get a calendar showing what's coming up for the week.  In addition, the site also allows you to create shopping lists, to-do lists, and a family journal (I haven't tried any of these free extras).  My family has been using this for a few weeks and it's been awesome - no more multiple "Mom, when's my soccer game?" conversations anymore. 

9.  Free US Government Publications (http://publications.usa.gov/USAPubs.php) - You'll find oodles of information here on a variety of topics such as Computers, Consumer Protection, Federal Programs, Cars, Family, Health, and Money.  Much of the data is free, but some is not.    Some of the titles I found intriguing including: "Know Your Rights:  A Guide For Victims & Witnesses Of Crime;" "Which Helmet For Which Activity;" "Keeping Listeria Out Of Your Kitchen;" and "How To Understand And Influence Older Drivers."   This could be a really useful website to recommend to a Web-savvy senior.

10.  Lyric Finder (www.lyricfinder.org) - So your 5-year old is saying the words to a song and you can't quite figure out what she's saying.  Plug the lyric and/or artist into this site and you can see exactly what the words are.  Or say there's a lyric stuck in your head at midnight and you're going nuts trying to figure out what song it came from.  Plug it into the site's search engine and the agonizing is over!   The site is not all-inclusive, however, and I've stumped it on a few occasions, but it's a good place to start, especially when you think your kid is singing one thing and you find out that the song's artist actually said something quite different (yikes!!!). 
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Special thanks to my eyebrow-raising hubby for challenging me to up my game on this blog.  Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully see you in another day or so.  TTFN!