Borax Review + A Chance To Win Some!

As a member of the Purex Insiders, from time to time, they send me a product to try out.

Most recently, I was sent a box of 20 Mule Team Borax, an all natural laundry booster.

Honestly, I haven't opened the box that I was sent yet, because I had a box of my own sitting around not being used.   I had bought it a while back because I saw it listed as an ingredient in some homemade laundry detergent that I planned on (and still do!) getting around to making one of these days.

Aside from that, I didn't really know what to do with it.

Well, aside from playing...

Flubber Recipe (adapted from pinterest, and this site):
roughly 1 cup warm water
1 8oz bottle of glue
2 tsp borax  (more or less until right consistency)
Mix in a bowl and stir well.

My girls had absolutely sooo much fun playing with this stuff, and it keeps in a bag for a LONG time (well until it gets left open and shoved in some crevice to be found months later...., so I'm not exactly sure how long.)


When I got my got my box with my Borax, I read over the information they sent along with it with interest.  It suggested adding 1/2 a cup to each load of laundry, to boost your current detergent's cleaning power.

It is an all natural mineral (sodium tetraborate--because I'm a chemistry nerd like that) that is produced from the recurring evaporation of seasonal lakes.  They remove it from the ground, clean it, box it, and sell it.  No other chemicals needed.

They claim that it will naturally soften hard water, improving your detergent's cleaning power (because most of your detergent simply binds to the calcium and magnesium ions in your hard water and sink to the bottom of your washer, never coming into contact with your clothes!), and helping stains from being re-deposited back onto clothing.

I was intrigued by this, so I began adding the suggested half a cup to each load of laundry.  I can't say for certain that it is making a huge difference on my laundry in general, but I haven't noticed many new set in stains lately, and having a 3 yo, there are usually a few!

I did note one stain in particular.  I had gotten a new dish towel.  A bright white dish towel.   My husband used it, as dish towels were meant to be used...to clean up a nasty kitchen mess.   I thought my new towel was done for, but after washing with the Borax added, I can barely see the faintest trace of where the stain was.


Want to try Borax for FREE?  Here's your chance!  Borax is currently running a Fresh Year, Fresher Laundry Sweepstakes on their Facebook page.

Grand Prize is $1,500, and other prizes include 171 coupons for a FREE box of Borax.

Enter today for a chance to win!

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Rubbermaid Lunchblox Review

Note: I was sent this product free to try out and review.  I was not compensated in any other way, nor was I required to write a review, or a positive one.

I was recently given the opportunity to try out the new Rubbermaid Lunchblox Sandwich kit.  I had just seen a coupon for this product, and thought that it looked pretty cool, so I was very excited to give it a try.  

I've not been able to put it through extensive use as of yet, because school just started this past Monday, but I will tell you that I did freeze the BlueIce pack and leave it sitting out on my counter, not even in an insulated lunch bag as it would normally be kept, and it stayed cold for a good 6 hours.

I also assembled the entire thing, because it all snaps together with the ice pack in between, and then I shook it around a bit to see how sturdy it was, and I was pretty impressed at how well it held together.

It is a little hard to initially get it to snap together correctly to get it to hold as it should, and I think my 6 year old might have some problems with that, but I don't foresee her needing to do it.

This is an imagine of how it is supposed to fit together and fit into a lunchbox.   I have no issues with the design itself.   My daughter's lunchbox, however, is not shaped this way.  It is a thin, flat one that straps onto her backpack.

Obviously, the Lunchblox kit will not fit into her lunchbox fully assembled, but I was able to lay the large square in with the Blue Ice snapped onto it, and still had room beside it for the small rectangle container to sit loose, and also fit her drink in there.

She does have a larger lunch bag that she used last year (it just doesn't exactly coordinate with her new gear.  Very important for at least the first few days of school, you know!), so I am hoping to get a lot more use out of this cool contraption between her and my husband.  

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Growing Culinary Herbs In Containers E-Book Review And Giveaway

I recently came across a blogger opportunity to read and review an e-book called Growing Culinary Herbs In Containers.

At the time, I was gearing up for beginning some container gardening after my failed attempts at in ground gardening in year past (and also hitting a 90% off garden clearance at Target last year where I scored some majorly cheap pots!)

I was actually looking to buy a book of this sort, so I applied for the opportunity, and got a nearly immediate response!  I was very excited to get to reading and learn all I could before I started my gardening.


The Review:


I really enjoyed the way this book was set up.  It separated the plants into annuals and perennials, which is certainly good information to have!  I had a few all mixed up, and was wondering why some died off and confused when others lived on through the winter!

Then, the book takes you through the types of herbs, alphabetically, in each category, and tells you everything you need to know about seeding, transplanting, watering, caring, common pests, harvesting, and storing!

Especially useful was the information about the sizes that the plants would need to grow for a single family, and which plants will do well together in a single container (because they need similar care).  I've had a tendency to just keep moving things to bigger and bigger pots, but not end up using half of what is produced.

Overall, the book was an easy read and easy to understand.  I'm still a novice gardener and can be put off by the big gardening terminology used in some books, but this one was not like that.

I found it very helpful, and I even came to understand that my enormous basil plant from last summer died from leaf rot due to over watering.

I've taken a few steps in my own gardening this week.  I've repotted my rosemary plant into a slightly bigger pot (it was my only remaining living plant), and I've planted just a few herb seeds that I had on hand.

I watered them slightly, and sat the small containers down into the bigger planter just as a holder, and slid it into my sunniest indoor windowsill so it could get some sun and be protected from the rain.   I will keep you all posted how my gardening endeavors go.   I intend to plant some veggies in containers as well!


The Giveaway:


The author of this book has been very generous, and is allowing me to giveaway 10 copies of her e-book which retails for $14.99!


10 winners will be chosen, and will receive a PDF copy of the book by email.

To enter, use the rafflecopter form below.  Good luck!



a Rafflecopter giveaway


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Smiley360 Mission: The New Pam Challenge

As a member of Smiley360, I am occasionally asked to participate in "missions" in which I try various products and give my feedback.

The most recent item I've been asked to try is Pam cooking spray.  It's manufacturers have reformulated it and say it works 70% better now.  They wanted the members of Smiley360 to put that claim to the test.

We were sent a coupon to purchase a can of Pam cooking spray for FREE, as well as the same for a can of Hunt's tomatoes (in case our recipe needed any, I suppose).  We also received a FREE large Pyrex casserole dish, that you will see in the pictures, and a Pam spatula.

Now let me just say that it has been a very, very long time since I have purchased Pam.  I have just about *always* purchased store brand cooking sprays, you know unless there was an awesome sale and I had a coupon that would triple or something.  And then I would just about *always* have to struggle and scrape thing off afterwards.

I have to say that my husband and I were AMAZED using this product.  First of all, I used it to spray the pans for all of my Thanksgiving Day baking, and not a single thing stuck.  Everything just slid right off of the pans.  I've since used it for simple things like baking chicken nuggets or popcorn shrimp, because those always stick also, but not with this stuff!

Tonight, I finally put that baking dish to the test.  I tweaked this enchilada casserole recipe just a bit.  I used chicken breast that I had marinated in picante sauce and slow cooked with some taco seasoning until it shredded.  I didn't have any enchilada sauce, so I used a cream of mushroom and a cream of chicken, and added a taco seasoning to that as well.  It turned out delicious!

Here's how I made it.  First I sprayed the bottom of the dish with the Pam.  I usually spread sauce on the bottom before lining with tortillas because it always sticks, but I wanted to really put the Pam to the test, so I put the tortillas right on in there.  Then I layered on the meat, sauce cheese, more tortillas, repeat.

Everything was fully cooked, so I just needed to pop it in the oven about 20 minutes to melt the cheese and heat the sauce thoroughly.  When it was time to serve, here's what happened:

 

*Sniff*  It's beautiful!  My husband, after the first use, decided that the scrubbing and scraping saved is worth spending the extra money on, and I've since for it on sale at Tom Thumb, and matched a coupon up with the sale to snag another smaller can of it for $1.49.  This is definitely going on my "be on the lookout for sales and coupons" list.

If you'd like to try it for yourself, risk free, Pam is currently offering a Money Back Guarantee form on their facebook page.  I'm pretty sure you won't need it though!  ;)


Disclosure:  I was not compensated for this post other than the free products.  This post was not even required of me.  I chose to write it because I liked the stuff so much I wanted to show and share.  All opinions are my own.

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Review: Laminated Cleaning Cards From The Happy Lil' Homemaker

A few weeks back, I ordered a few items from The Happy Lil' Homemaker Store.  Now before I get to the point of this blog post, let me just say that I am totally blown away by the organizational skills of this woman.  Mine are...in a word...lacking.   

I knew that Kindergarten was going to be starting soon, and things were going to be hectic and crazy around here if I did not get my act together!  I had been eyeing the laminated cleaning cards in her store for some time, so I decided to take action and order them.  She was running a FREE shipping special (which is still going on, but it ends Sunday!!) so I thought there was no better time!

You can have your cards customized, and she shows a few examples on her site.  I asked for purple because I absolutely adore purple, so here are my cards.

They came with the backs of the cards labeled with the date, which is awesome.  I happen to be an out of sight out of mind sort of person, so I chose to write in the days in large (purple) Sharpie across the tops.  I also wrote in myself a daily reminder to do a load of dishes (or else I forget and have a mountain of dirty things in my sink), and to gather up the trash and recycling on the night before trash day.

A couple of quick personalizations and they work perfectly for me!  They are so detailed and cover so many things that I would never have thought to do (like dusting the ceiling fans...I never remember that!).

I have been using them for about two weeks now, and my house was in a pretty sad state when I received them.  I have to say that a week into using them, it was not even very stressful getting the house cleaned up for my mom's visit this past week.

I found the list a bit overwhelming at first, so instead of trying to clean all 4 of my bedrooms on one day, I focused on one or two, then the next week I moved to another and simply had to maintain the first one a bit.

I did the same with wiping down the kitchen walls.  I started with the top cabinets one week and the bottom cabinets the next.  

I know I still have a good ways to go to get this place looking the way I would like it to, but I feel like just having this schedule to remind me what needs to be done each day is helping so much, plus they are laminated, so I just track my progress with a dry erase marker so I can easily see what has and has not been done!

I actually feel as though I am making progress towards getting my house in order, and even have some time for some organizational tasks--like clipping my long neglected coupons!

There are many different items like these offered in The Happy Little Homemaker Store, and until Sunday shipping is still FREE, so go have a look and see if there is anything she offers that can help make your life easier and your household run more smoothly!

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