Suburban Reviews

Anyone who knows me can tell you I was obviously absent the day organizational skills were being passed out. I hate making lists, because I know darn well I will probably just end up losing them, if I remember I made them in the first place. It’s a bad place to be my friends. Needless to say I was excited when the Parent Bloggers Network teamed up with Day Runner to try out their new Family Matters system. Maybe this will be the answer to my terribly unorganized dreams?

The basic premise here is color-coding. Each family member is assigned a color, and each piece in the system works with that. The undated erasable wall calendar is double sided, with one side having color coded boxes down the side of a traditional view, or for the busier family, the colored boxes rule, with the dates going down the side. Sound complicated? I promise it isn’t.

For those used to a regular wall calendar, there is a normal dated one for 2008 and beyond. Always on the go? Check out the color-coded planner. Also included in the system are storage boxes for those loose papers in each family member’s color, durable activity folders, and a really neat door hanger set(you guessed it, color coded as well!) for jotting down reminders.

There are only a few downsides that I can see with these products, and they are somewhat minor. The door hangers did not fit right, and I realized anyways how foolish it would be to hang anything with a marker on it that low in a house with two preschoolers. My plan is to hang these a little higher on a nail or tack, out of reach of the little ones. Also, the size is perfect for my family of five, but what about those with larger families? The more kids you have, the more organized you need to be, so I would highly recommend Day Runner consider some kind of expansion packs for this system.

Beyond that, I have to say I am very much in love with these products, and will be buying the wall info center when it becomes available. Hopefully Day Runner will help me make 2008 a little more organized!

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…then I’m going to make eating candles a disease too.

Before you click away thinking I’m crazy, you must smell this candle. Once you smell it, you’ll be eating right along with me like it’s the sanest thing in the world.

What kind of candle smells so good that soybean wax sounds (and smells!) like a perfectly plausible meal replacement plan?

That would be the Swan Creek Candle.

I discovered this candle while Wally and I were on our Free-At-Last! shopping trip in the fa-fa city of Fairhope, AL. As we walked hand-in-hand, in and out of the most child-unfriendly stores around, our noses discovered the most wonderful scent. We breathed deeply, following the scrumptious aroma until we found the source.

One of the fa-fa stores was burning the Swan Creek Candle in a gingerbread scent.  It smelled so unbelievable that Wally had to keep me from falling down on my knees and licking the candle in the store.

The candle made our car smell great just by sitting in the bag. Once we were home, I lit it and within 10 minutes, my entire house smelled so delicious. Just 1o minutes! And for only $10, it’s an incredible bargain to have my house smell like I slaved the day away in the kitchen baking homemade goodies.

By the way, you could still smell the scent in the kitchen by lunch the next day, even though I only lit the candle the one time the day before.

Needless to say, the Yankees can keep their candles.

This Dixie chick is all about Swan Creek from now on.

Everyone with children has heard of the Dangerous Book for Boys. Not surprisingly when the book came out, many parents were left asking “What about the girls? Why is it just for boys?” Picking this up and running with it, Andrea J. Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz wrote the companion book, The Daring Book for Girls. Thanks to the Parent Bloggers Network, I got to check it out and see what all the fuss is about!

The first thing I noticed about the book is how random it is. This book is made to be flipped open and browsed through quickly, making it perfect for a certain 9 year old girl with a very short attention span. (Not that I know any of those. Ahem.) Each section is only a couple of pages, and covers an amazing range of topics. Do you know the rules of basketball? 14 different ways to play tag? How to care for a softball glove? Did you know there were female pirates? Need plans to build a scooter? Want to learn some really big words, or be able to name some modern-day princesses around the world? It’s all in there. A lot of the information is really useful; I was thrilled to see parts talking about math tricks, the periodic table, and a lot of interesting history bits. Others, maybe not so much. (Stocks and bonds? Robert’s Rules?) Overall it’s a great mix of things to do and things to know.

I think my only reservation about this book is the politics behind it. I wrote recently about how it seems things just for boys are being demonized, yet things just for girls go without comment, and this seems to be another case of that. Don’t get me wrong, I applaud the authors for recognizing and filling a gap with a well-written, interesting book. There is however a little voice in the back of my head asking why was there so much uproar when the Dangerous Book for Boys was introduced, yet when a similar book for girls comes out, no one has anything to say about it, other than great job?

All in all, the Daring Book for Girls is a great book that will take you back to your own childhood, and maybe open your eyes to all the things girls can do, if only we as an over-protective society will allow them.

If you’d like to hear more about this book, be sure to check out Motherhood Uncensored on Blogtalk Radio Wednesday night at 9pm as she interviews Andrea and Miriam about the book!

If you haven’t been living under a rock, I’m sure you’ve heard about Jessica Seinfeld’s book, Deceptively Delicious by now. Oprah raved about it, and thanks to the Parent Bloggers Network, I got a chance to check it out as well! 

Not too often do celebrity wives venture into the cookbook arena, particularly about cooking for kids. What makes this book stand out however, is her feeling that it doesn’t matter how you get your kids to eat right, so long as you get the veggies into them. The concept of the cookbook is taking vegetables, pureeing them, and slipping them into foods you wouldn’t normally expect.

The book itself is very pretty and well put-together. There is a very retro feel to it, with the colors, patterns, and illustrations all done in a way that reminds you of a 1960’s home economics textbook. The book takes you step by step through the process of preparing your kitchen, including what pans and cooking tools you’ll need. Next you’ll find a section on making your veggie purees. This section is very thorough, and broken down into very easy to follow steps. Finally, there is a section on the nutrition of various fruits and vegetables used before you get to the actual recipes.

The recipes cover everything from breakfast to dessert.  To her credit, most of the foods are made to be very kid-friendly. You’ll find plenty of recipes for things like chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, french toast, and even homemade ketchup, all containing hidden veggies like broccoli, carrots, and cauliflour.

I have to say, something about this book bugs me. Deceptively Delicious seems…well, rather deceptive. Kids can take up to 15 times of trying a food before they will like it enough to eat it, so I have a hard time working out how they will learn to like a food they can’t tell is even there? And as far as sneaking in nutrition, I am not sure a half cup of sweet potato added to a dish large enough for 3-5 people is going to add very much. I realize every bit counts, but is that tablespoon of potato per serving really worth all the trouble?

After giving this a lot of thought, I think the energy would have been better focused on finding different ways of preparing the vegetables to make them more appealing to kids on their own merit, not because they are hidden and undetectable. Just because a child eats broccoli hidden in brownies or chicken nuggets does not mean they will be any less likely to turn up their nose at it when served in a form they recognize.

I think Deceptively Delicious is worth checking out as a healthy cookbook for kids, but I wouldn’t expect to use the idea as a way of getting a full 3-5 servings of veggies a day into them.  As a way to get in a little extra, it’s worth checking out.