Traveling with young kiddos

As we at times make roadtrips to see friends and family, I have been thinking recently about how to make such trips go as smoothly as possible, specifically in regards to the kids. Although many of you will think we are crazy for this, we choose not to take a portable DVD player on our trips. (Note – this is not a commentary on children and the use of media. We are simply choosing not to use a dvd player at this point in time for our trip.) Anyway, the other day on Facebook, I asked others what kinds of toys, games, and other tips they could give me on how to make roadtrips with kids a success. I received such great ideas that I wanted to share them in a blog post as a resource for others, especially if you are planning any family travels during this holiday season.

Ideas for toys & games: (buying a lap tray for your child at a place like Michael’s will make doing many of the below suggestions much easier)

• magnetic writing boards
• paint books that only require water and paintbrush
• dollar store toys that are wrapped up – they can be pulled out separately when a new diversion is needed
• playing ‘I-Spy’ or counting games (ie. ‘How many trucks do you see on I-80?’)
• Make a bingo type card with shapes (trees, a triangle, stop sign, truck, car, farm, etc) that they can color when they find them. Give your child a little prize when they find a certain number.
• stuffed animals
• CDs of kids music
• crayons and coloring books
• an Etch-A-Sketch
• Flash cards or playing cards (card games) to stack up and put all over around their seats (not necessarily to play the actual game, just to goof around with and look at and put in and out of the box- cheap fun from the dollar store)
• ‘I-Spy bottles’ – filling a bottle with rice and other small objects for the kids to look at, shake, and turn. (Dawn’s note – I found a good instructional blog post on them here)
• Tie a strap across the back seat of the vehicle close to the ceiling, then hang different toys from it for the child to look at/watch.
• storybook CDs
• fun magnets with a metal cookie sheet to play with them on
• look-and-find books
• Give your young child an unused roll of scotch tape and let him/her go crazy. (The friend who gave this suggestion shared, “It created a mess, was sticky, but he was occupied for hours. Oh, and then we had to make sure he knew that’s not what we normally do with a roll of tape.”)

Other travel tips:

• Do the bulk of your traveling during a time when you know when your children will be sleeping.
• Stop often – we (Dawn) like to stop at a place where we can grab food and then take it to a park for Elijah to run a bit. One person suggested that you look ahead on maps and find parks ahead of time.
• Have a lot of options for your children to deal with their short attention spans.
• If you are stopping at a motel for the evening, give them the promise of swimming in a motel pool at the end of the day to look forward to.
• Have plenty of snack options (individual bags are helpful) available.

I thought these were fantastic ideas and I am excited to implement many of them into our upcoming trip. I have the following people to thank for the above suggestions: Cheri R., Jessica M., Molly H., Jennifer C., Kaydi K., Martha C., Amy A., Becky D., Andrea S., Zach S., Jason B., and Sharon J. Thank you to each of you!

What about you? Do you have any ideas or tips to add to these lists?

The E-cloth winner!

Thanks for all of the comments and feedback I received from the previous post about e-cloths – I appreciate those of you who shared taking the time to do so! And now, for the moment of truth.

The winner of the Professional E-cloth with silver ions is …

ahem … my mom. (pictured above with me and Abigail about 10 months ago)

No, folks, I’m not even kidding – you can’t make this stuff up!

She shared, “Have not heard of the e-cloth, but have been to a Norwex party….did not purchase anything because of the cost. Things I dislike cleaning….windows and dusting furniture. Can these cloths be used for dusting?? Looking forward to seeing you at Christmas! Love you! – Mom”

Aw, I love you too, Mom! (nothing like letting all of blog world in on a sweet mother-daughter moment ).

If you’re wondering if I just rigged the giveaway so that my mom would win, the answer is … no. I actually numbered the comments in the order in which they were left, then used a random number generator at random.org to figure out the number of the winner. My mom’s comment was the lucky number! Mom, you’ll have to let me know what color cloth you want, but don’t bother giving me your address .. I know where you live.

Thanks again to all who entered the giveaway … please let me know if you have additional questions about e-cloths or email the seller herself at TheEcloth@gmail.com.

Making cleaning simpler and safer (giveaway!)

While I don’t plan to ‘push’ products on this blog, I do want to share items from time to time that I think are worth sharing about; items I have personally used and recommend. I’ve got one such item for you today! Awhile back, I was having a group of moms and their small kiddos over for a play date. At one point, one of the moms said that she really wanted to show us something, then proceeded to get out a small cloth, rinse it with water, then wash my floor to ceiling glass deck doors until they were sparkling … in a matter of about 1 minute! All of the rest of us sat there in awe – the windows were so clean and after only using a cloth and water?! We wanted to know more … this friend told us more about the cloths, then proceeded to share that she had been selling them for 1 year. I accused her of holding out on us , and her response was that she didn’t ever want us to feel like she was pushing products on us, but that instead, when she eventually shared about the cloth, she wanted us to think she had been holding out on us!

Mission accomplished, my friend.

The cloth she was using was not just any cloth, but an E-cloth. I had never heard of such a thing. Basically, the e-cloths are a line of cleaning cloths that remove 99% of bacteria from surfaces without using any chemicals, but only water. Are you skeptical yet? I was. But then my friend told us more, plus brought out the ‘professional cleaning cloth’ with silver ions (she had been using the glass and polishing cloth on my windows) for me to try. I went around my house cleaning different things and actually had (gasp!) fun (!) seeing how clean things were getting. Did I buy a few cloths that day? You better believe it!

You may have heard of the Norwex cloth, which is a very similar product. I have never used the Norwex products, so cannot compare the two. However, because I went to the e-cloth facebook page and ‘liked’ it, I received a significant discount on anything I buy. Because of that, and because I cannot find much evidence that there is much difference between the 2 cloths, it made the most sense to buy the e-cloth. Plus, I’ve been very happy with both the polish and the professional cloths (I have not yet tried any of the other products). Here’s why I’m a happy camper with these cloths:

• No chemicals are used when cleaning with the e-cloths.
• 99% of bacteria is removed from the objects you are cleaning … with only the use of water!
• I use less sponges and paper towels, thus cutting down on the amount of waste I throw away.
• The surfaces I clean with the e-cloth are left residue-free. I especially love how the professional cloth removes grease from my stove top and how the polishing cloth makes my stainless steel-like refrigerator gleam!
• I can use the professional e-cloth on my wood floors, knowing that I am not hurting the wood with any chemicals (yes, I have to get down on my hands and knees, but it’s incredibly easier than using a mop!)
• I have used the professional e-cloth to remove stains from my kids’ carpet, and it made a significant difference.
• The professional e-cloth contains antibacterial natural silver, which serves to speed up the killing of bacteria in the cloth itself, thus keeping the cloths fresher. I love the thought that I am not simply smearing previously wiped up bacteria from my cloth onto other surfaces when I re-use the cloth (blech!)

Are there any negatives to the E-cloth? Well, I do find that they need to be washed after several days of use as they will start to smell a little funky, but that’s really not a huge issue and especially won’t be when I have built up my supply a bit more. Beyond that, I honestly cannot think of any complaint I have of the cloth. And if you’re wondering – no, I’m not just doing this post as a favor to my friend or because I’m getting some kick-back if any of you buy any e-cloths. To make things clear, I am not profiting in any way by writing this post.

I’ll be honest – I don’t know every single fact there is to know about the e-cloth, but what I do know, plus their performance in my house, really impresses me. If you’re still looking for Christmas presents, this could be a great item for someone who wants to simplify cleaning, stop using chemicals to clean, and/or wants to stop wasting sponges, paper towels, etc. that they use to clean.

Or… you could just invest in some for yourself.

Or… you could win one in the following give-away! I have bought one professional E-cloth with silver ions and would love to give it away for one lucky winner to try. All you have to do is leave a comment below and answer the following question:  What thing(s) in your house do you most dislike cleaning? That’s it. Simple, no? Leave your comment by noon MST on Sunday, December 11th – the winner will be chosen and revealed on Monday, December 12th.

But, before you leave your comment, I wanted to let you know that, again, if you go to the E-cloth Facebook page and ‘like’ the page, you will receive 20% 50% off your orders. If that is not something you would like to do of if you are not a Facebook user, you can email the seller directly at TheEcloth@gmail.com to get the same discount.

Now, leave your comment … and happy cleaning!

Delighting in life

A few weeks ago, I had a conversation with a friend regarding the fact that, many times, we really don’t know how to truly delight in things. She and I discussed that, in certain other cultures, meals are long affairs in which the people thoroughly enjoy their food and company. This is just one small example of what I’m talking about, but I think you get the point. We are often so worried about wasting time, thinking about the next thing, or simply living out of a sense of obligation, that we don’t slow down and simply delight … in a meal, in another person, in an activity. And if we do, for once, allow ourselves to do such a thing, we then feel guilty because of other things we ‘should have’ been doing or because we shouldn’t be enjoying such ‘frivolous’ things such as good food, a smooth glass of wine, or a great book.

A few days after that conversation, our dear friends, Matthew and Briana, flew in from San Francisco to hang out in our area for the weekend. The first night they were here, Shun-Luoi and I dropped our kids off with some friends, and the 4 of us headed to a local fondue restaurant, where we feasted and talked for, get this – THREE AND A HALF HOURS.

How many of you just thought things such as, “Seriously? Who takes that long to eat?” or “What a waste of time!” or “Do you know how much you could have gotten done in that amount of time?!”

Despite what you may think, it was … awesome. I loved being able to take that amount of time and really taste the food and delight in its goodness, as well as getting to sit and catch up with some good friends. After that evening, I thought to myself, “Yes! This is what my friend was talking about. Delight.” We are so busy getting caught up into doing the should-haves, ought-to’s, the things that we have decided are ‘important,’ and doing as much as we possibly can in a day that we are missing out in the beautiful things God gave us to enjoy. I think we should remedy that.

I think we should do it this weekend.

Who’s with me? I challenge you to stop long enough to truly delight in something or someone in the next few days. And then make it a habit to do so each day. Enjoy!