Scrubbing Bubble Fresh Brush MAX (an SC Johnson product)
A few weeks ago while skimming the couponsin the Sunday paper, I found a great offer that gave me incentive to try out this new product from Scrubbing Bubbles. This line of cleaning product is the one I fall back on whenever I find myself staring dumbfoundedly at the myriad of brands in the supermarket's cleaning aisle. It's been a trusted workhorse for me in bathroom cleaning, a task that I don't so much dislike, but rather at which I feel completely inadequate.
So, while I'm generally against the needless waste produced by these types of disposables, when I found a coupon that, matched up with an in-store sale, made the Scrubbing Bubbles Fresh Brush MAX free, I figured it wouldn't hurt to pick one up and try it out.
The kit I purchased came with a wand and two cleaning pads. Now, I'm not one for reading directions, so following suit, I tossed those in the trash with the packaging and proceeded to attempt to assemble the device. I found it to be not very intuitive, and on my first try cleaning the toilet bowl, the pad dropped right in. I managed to get it hooked back on and finish the cleaning. It was like any other cleaning product and didn't do any better or worse than my regular toilet product and trusty brush.
On the second attempt, I was more successful at getting the cleaning pad attached, but I found it left blue residue and streaks long after I rinsed the bowl. It also seemed to drop blue cleaning residue on the floor, was difficult to drip dry and dripped more blue all the way to the trash can.
Following the use of this second and final free pad, I just threw the handle in the trash with the rest of the disposables, because as far as I'm concerned, it's not worth the expense or the waste to purchase again.
(FWIW, I typically use Scrubbing Bubbles Toilet Bowl cleaner and quite like it. For most other cleaning tasks, a solution of vinegar and water is my favorite.)
Friday, July 11, 2008
And now for the pictures...
Sunday, July 6, 2008
This Mom's got a lotta love to share
Bad grammar aside, my little piece of the American dream is called With Love from Mom. You can find me at http://www.withlovefrommom.com or shop directly at http://www.withlovefrommom.etsy.com .
What it's all about, my friends, is a little dream and a prayer. I love to craft. No, I'm downright addicted to it. But I'm a stay-at-home Mom and my crafting addiction nearly led to a craft budget crisis. It's not like I don't have plenty to do with my day, so spending my husband's hard earned income, and my kids' college funds, on piles and piles of fabric, scrapbook paper, and beads that I found little time to get to was just so unfair.
But for those who craft, or anyone who has a hobby, you know what a release it is, what a need you have to express something with the work of your hands. For me, it's calming. And when an astute young seminarian recommended I try making twine rosaries as an economical crafting outlet that would do double duty as a conduit to better prayer, I was hooked... or knotted, I guess :)
As it so happened, about that time I was needing to get out of the house after having had my second child and staying at home full-time. So I took a little class at a local craft chain store and learned how to chain beads together with wire. After the class, as I browsed the aisles looking for beads to take home and practice, I seemed to see everything in groups of six and ten, so the first stash of beads I took home became a rosary... and so it has continued.
My business, then, has a three-fold mission. First, my goal is to pray more. I'm happy to report that I'm pleased with my progress in that area, but have an infinitely long way to go. Second, I want to support both my crafting habit and those who are called to vocations. Again, these things are going fairly well. In 6 months, I've raised over $100 for my cause, and haven't spent a dime of our family budget beyond the wee bit of capital with which I started (and believe me, it was a WEE bit). Third, and finally, I hope to inspire... through the inspiration given me by the Holy Spirit and worked into the chains of beads I produce... someone who wouldn't be so inclined to pick up a rosary, to do so, and to fall deeply in love with a devotion that has provided so much strength in my life.
Now that I've talked enough, I'm off to help another blogger with some code, and then I'll be back with my little gallery :)
What it's all about, my friends, is a little dream and a prayer. I love to craft. No, I'm downright addicted to it. But I'm a stay-at-home Mom and my crafting addiction nearly led to a craft budget crisis. It's not like I don't have plenty to do with my day, so spending my husband's hard earned income, and my kids' college funds, on piles and piles of fabric, scrapbook paper, and beads that I found little time to get to was just so unfair.
But for those who craft, or anyone who has a hobby, you know what a release it is, what a need you have to express something with the work of your hands. For me, it's calming. And when an astute young seminarian recommended I try making twine rosaries as an economical crafting outlet that would do double duty as a conduit to better prayer, I was hooked... or knotted, I guess :)
As it so happened, about that time I was needing to get out of the house after having had my second child and staying at home full-time. So I took a little class at a local craft chain store and learned how to chain beads together with wire. After the class, as I browsed the aisles looking for beads to take home and practice, I seemed to see everything in groups of six and ten, so the first stash of beads I took home became a rosary... and so it has continued.
My business, then, has a three-fold mission. First, my goal is to pray more. I'm happy to report that I'm pleased with my progress in that area, but have an infinitely long way to go. Second, I want to support both my crafting habit and those who are called to vocations. Again, these things are going fairly well. In 6 months, I've raised over $100 for my cause, and haven't spent a dime of our family budget beyond the wee bit of capital with which I started (and believe me, it was a WEE bit). Third, and finally, I hope to inspire... through the inspiration given me by the Holy Spirit and worked into the chains of beads I produce... someone who wouldn't be so inclined to pick up a rosary, to do so, and to fall deeply in love with a devotion that has provided so much strength in my life.
Now that I've talked enough, I'm off to help another blogger with some code, and then I'll be back with my little gallery :)
It's been a while...
Yes, it is now the 4th of July holiday weekend, and I haven't posted since, um, March. I'm a little slow on the update of these new fandangled technologies (well, no, not really... but hey, I'm busy) but I've caught the blogging bug.
There's just so much going on, isn't there? We've got an election coming, for starters. I won't bore you with my political leanings, really, just maybe a casual observation or two now and then.
My kids are just, wow, growing too fast. Too dang fast. And they're funny. Parent or not, those "out of the mouths of babes" stories are usually too good to pass up, so I'll try to stop by more often with those. I've been trying to come up with cute nicknames to call my kids here to protect their privacy (and possibly protect them from blackmail as they age)... so going forward, it'll be Bean and Beanette. Ok, so not that cute, but it's hot in my office and I'm losing patience for my lack of creativity.
And, confession time, I run a little home business. It's been slow growing, and my ideas just seem to burst forth faster than I can afford to put them into production. So my frustrations, achievements, and wonderments about how to run this whole show will probably end up catalogued here. A little intro to that in my next post.
Shall we proceed?
There's just so much going on, isn't there? We've got an election coming, for starters. I won't bore you with my political leanings, really, just maybe a casual observation or two now and then.
My kids are just, wow, growing too fast. Too dang fast. And they're funny. Parent or not, those "out of the mouths of babes" stories are usually too good to pass up, so I'll try to stop by more often with those. I've been trying to come up with cute nicknames to call my kids here to protect their privacy (and possibly protect them from blackmail as they age)... so going forward, it'll be Bean and Beanette. Ok, so not that cute, but it's hot in my office and I'm losing patience for my lack of creativity.
And, confession time, I run a little home business. It's been slow growing, and my ideas just seem to burst forth faster than I can afford to put them into production. So my frustrations, achievements, and wonderments about how to run this whole show will probably end up catalogued here. A little intro to that in my next post.
Shall we proceed?
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Let's start with a movie, shall we?
My entire family was recovering from a stomach bug today. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't food poisoning, though I did the requisite scrutinization of the fridge contents and self-blame game anyway. I would say it's a virus if one kid comes down with it Tuesday morning, and the other child and 3rd child (aka husband) on Wednesday while I have the joy of cleaning it all up and then not getting it until Thursday, wouldn't you? But I digress... already...
So to treat ourselves for making it through all of that, not before an ER visit with one dehydrated little boy, mind you, we decided to have a family movie night. I made the executive decision to choose the movie because I was not going to sit through another episode of Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora, or Dragon Tales. And heaven forbid we go to Blockbuster and get something other than Thomas and the Magic Railroad. (Have you seen that? Ugh... we'll discuss later.)
Anyway, we got Bee Movie, and I'll say that I was fairly happy with it. The Mom-critic in me gives it 3 out of 4 stars. The real movie fan in me says more like 1.5 out of 4.
The film met my criteria for a good family-night flick:
1) it kept the kids entertained
2) the plot was easy to follow as I fetched food and drink on demand
3) laughs for the grown-ups
4) nothing too risque for little eyes
5) I didn't have to think, or explain a whole lot to my inquisitive eldest child
Now would be a good time to tell you that my kids are 4.5 and 2 years of age. The 4.5-year-old has always been discriminating about his movies. The two-year-old watches anything that's on the tube. My husband (who I love dearly so I've made my last joke at his expense above), is a serious movie buff. Serious. So I'll also tell you he didn't like this movie... maybe 1 out of 4 stars.
But as I said, my Mompinion is that it is a safe and fun film for the family. I liked the take on the exploitation of bees, the little neatly packaged ecology lesson, the humor of the whole bee world. The voice-overs were great (how many did you recognize?) and the whole look and feel was, well, just entertaining. Where the film loses ground for my inner film critic, is in the fact that the plot skips a whole lot of steps as it goes along. For example, one minute Vanessa is freaking out about talking to a bee, and a few short scenes later, she's helping that same bee draft a lawsuit. Gee, how'd we get there? But then the Mom-critic appreciates that same aspect. Kept things moving and fast enough to keep me from having to answer the endless barrage of questions I'd been getting lately while watching, reading, or really doing anything.
And that little ecology lesson... I'll say my kids probably didn't know a whole lot about bees before this other than to try to stay away from them. So since Spring is soon upon us, we'll build on what we saw here and have some fun with it when we get to go outside.
But what's that forecast for the weekend? Rain, rain and more rain. And bees can't fly in the rain.
So to treat ourselves for making it through all of that, not before an ER visit with one dehydrated little boy, mind you, we decided to have a family movie night. I made the executive decision to choose the movie because I was not going to sit through another episode of Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora, or Dragon Tales. And heaven forbid we go to Blockbuster and get something other than Thomas and the Magic Railroad. (Have you seen that? Ugh... we'll discuss later.)
Anyway, we got Bee Movie, and I'll say that I was fairly happy with it. The Mom-critic in me gives it 3 out of 4 stars. The real movie fan in me says more like 1.5 out of 4.
The film met my criteria for a good family-night flick:
1) it kept the kids entertained
2) the plot was easy to follow as I fetched food and drink on demand
3) laughs for the grown-ups
4) nothing too risque for little eyes
5) I didn't have to think, or explain a whole lot to my inquisitive eldest child
Now would be a good time to tell you that my kids are 4.5 and 2 years of age. The 4.5-year-old has always been discriminating about his movies. The two-year-old watches anything that's on the tube. My husband (who I love dearly so I've made my last joke at his expense above), is a serious movie buff. Serious. So I'll also tell you he didn't like this movie... maybe 1 out of 4 stars.
But as I said, my Mompinion is that it is a safe and fun film for the family. I liked the take on the exploitation of bees, the little neatly packaged ecology lesson, the humor of the whole bee world. The voice-overs were great (how many did you recognize?) and the whole look and feel was, well, just entertaining. Where the film loses ground for my inner film critic, is in the fact that the plot skips a whole lot of steps as it goes along. For example, one minute Vanessa is freaking out about talking to a bee, and a few short scenes later, she's helping that same bee draft a lawsuit. Gee, how'd we get there? But then the Mom-critic appreciates that same aspect. Kept things moving and fast enough to keep me from having to answer the endless barrage of questions I'd been getting lately while watching, reading, or really doing anything.
And that little ecology lesson... I'll say my kids probably didn't know a whole lot about bees before this other than to try to stay away from them. So since Spring is soon upon us, we'll build on what we saw here and have some fun with it when we get to go outside.
But what's that forecast for the weekend? Rain, rain and more rain. And bees can't fly in the rain.
Welcome to my world!
Lots of folks call me Momma, or just Mom. You can too... I don't mind :) Only 2 of those people really have a biological reason to, anyway. I'm home with those two most all day, every day, and life has changed totally since that came about.
I look at everything differently now: movies, the news, music, driving, vacations, money, friends, religion, my husband.............. myself!
Sound familiar? Well, if you're looking to make some sense of it or carve out your niche in the life of a mother, grab a cuppa coffee, and join me. We'll take a close look at it all, and maybe... just maybe... make the world a better place for those looking up at us.
I look at everything differently now: movies, the news, music, driving, vacations, money, friends, religion, my husband.............. myself!
Sound familiar? Well, if you're looking to make some sense of it or carve out your niche in the life of a mother, grab a cuppa coffee, and join me. We'll take a close look at it all, and maybe... just maybe... make the world a better place for those looking up at us.
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