Saturday, July 30, 2011

Looking for better Digestive Health #digestivehealth

mark 4x probiotic

Ok, to be honest, this isn't something people often talk about. If I'm not mistaken I have talked about it before on my blog, so, here I go again.
With so many different things affecting our digestive systems, like stress, work, fast food, being on the run all the time, it's hard to always stay in control of things. My body is no exception. Actually, I've had a bit of a problem with my digestive health for most of my life. I don't pay a lot of attention to it, I've just learned to live with it. Until now, I hope. 
I've been given the opportunity to try a product called 4X Probiotic. It's a Digestive Care Supplement. I start taking it tomorrow. When I opened it, I noticed something that I think is great. It's marked with the days of the week. That way, as long as I start on Sunday, which I'm going to, I won't forget if I've taken one or not. Great idea!
If you go to the website Digestive Health for Me! there is a lot of information on there, including a Digestive Health forum. There is a picture of a woman with a smiley face on her tummy. I'm hoping that will be me soon. 

This is available at Sam's Club. So if you're a Sam's Club shopper you can pick this up, no problem.
I've also learned that there is going to be Twitter parties coming up soon with gift cards and this product as prizes. I'll be there and I'll let you know when they are happening so you can be there too. 

So, let me try this for a couple of weeks and I'll get back to you and let you know what I think. I have high hopes.......


 Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias

Friday, July 29, 2011

The Reveal My Dining Room Makeover #gliddentesters

2011_07290002

OK, so as you saw in a post the other day, thanks to Glidden Paint and #gliddentesters I've been doing a makeover on my dining room. I tried to think outside of the box for this one, and for me, red IS my box. I love red. Nearly every room in my house has red in it somewhere. Red and/or green. I was talking to my husband and he thought a warm yellow would be a nice change so I went to the Glidden website and looked up a bunch of colors. When I got my colors I went to Walmart and got some Glidden Testers and tried them on the wall.
I decided to go ahead and use the yellow and the white but the green was just a bit too dark for what I wanted to accomplish. My daughter helped me and my cats 'helped' me. I must admit though, when I was finished with the walls, the built in china cabinet just didn't look right. So what's a girl to do but have her hubby go back to Walmart and some more paint. Ok, I cheated. I got him to get me a pint of red paint for the doors.
One thing I must say though. This Glidden paint spread very nicely and had a great coverage. Even over the dark red like I had on the wall, I only needed one main coat, let it dry and did some touch ups on one wall and one more light coat on the left side wall. No primer necessary, which was certainly a time saver and a money saver.
I even remember when paint used to have a bad smell but this paint didn't have any kind of smell at all. I loved that.
So, now for some before and after shots.

The left side of my dining room before and after:
2011_072800012011_07280037

The right side of my dining room before and after:
2011_072800022011_07280014

My china cabinet before and after:
2011_072800162011_07280039

The finished room and my happy hubby:
2011_072800412011_07280042

I so enjoyed doing this project. I needed something fresh in my house. It's been so hot outside that it was nice to bring a little sunshine indoors with the yellow that hubby liked so much. I chronicled my experience picking out the paint at Walmart and painting at home with my daughter, my cats and Glidden paints in the 'ThisMoment' post below. Click through and take a look at how much fun we had.


My Dining Room Makeover thanks to #gliddentesters

This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Glidden Testers/Paint #collectivebias” but all the photos and opinions are solely my own.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Mr. Sandman, why have you deserted me?

What is it about the month of June that makes my body not want to sleep? Last year, right around this time, I had about two or three weeks where I couldn't sleep. I would get about 3 or 4 hours a night, if I was lucky. We went on vacation and on June 26th checked in to a hotel, where I slept a full nights sleep for the first time in weeks. Maybe it was the bed. Maybe it was the (colder than I keep it in my own home) air conditioner. Maybe it was the long drive and other activities during the day. I don't know. What I do know is that point on I was able to get my sleep patterns back to normal.
Flash Forward to this June and I'm in the same spot. Yes, Texas (as well as a lot of the country) is in a heat wave of over 100F during the day and not getting below 80F at night. I do keep it colder in my house this year than I did last year. I've completely cut caffeine out of my days. I've even gone as far as to take a PM medication but don't want to make that a habit.
As I write this, it's 4:53am and I've been up for an hour. Sigh.
I'm not going on vacation until the middle of September this year so I hope I don't have to wait until then to get my sleep back.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Time for a change using #gliddentesters I bought at Walmart

IMG_0605IMG_0619

Did you ever look around your house and say "ok, it's time for a change"? I do, plenty, but I never do much about it for some reason. Until now, that is.
I like red on my walls, that's no secret. I have red on my bedroom walls, my dining room walls, my living room walls, my laundry room walls and my front foyer walls. Yes, you heard me, I like red. However, recently I've been thinking that my dining room needed an update. Maybe something to break up the red. Break up the red, but still compliment it in the other areas of my house.
I went to the Glidden website to see what I could learn. Let me tell you, if you want a good place to go, that is it. You could 'paint' a room to see what the color would look like with the suggested trim colors. They had every color they carried on there and if you liked something you could save it so you could back later and find it again. They even have calculator to help you figure out how much paint you will need, which I found great because I'm always guessing at that.
So my daughter and I headed to Walmart on the weekend to see if we could find the colors I was looking for. Surprisingly, they had all the #gliddentesters, over 300 of them so I was not restricted at all in what I chose. Of course, my daughter tried talking me into doing her room instead of the dining room and I almost caved, but I really wanted to do my dining room.
I ended up choosing these three colors and they looked pretty close to what ended up on the wall.
IMG_06152011_07190002
So, that is all you get for a sneak peek. I'm going to paint my dining room and take before and after photos. I'll post all the info on here and let you know how it turned out. Maybe you can even let me know what you think. There is a $2 coupon on these testers too.Check out my right side bar for it. That makes your #gliddentesters only $.94!!
If you want to take a look at how I got the #gliddentesters and where to look for the same thing in your Walmart, take a look at my ThisMoment below.



“This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Glidden Testers/Paint #collectivebias” but all the opinions are my own.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Shopping at Walmart for #ClearAmerican Flavored Water

IMG_0646


You know, every now and then, you should try something different. I thought I would challenge my family, of course, they didn't know it yet, to try something different from their normal Gatorade, pop, etc. I went to Walmart to check out something I just heard of called #ClearAmerican flavored sparkling water. My husband said he used to drink it all the time but it's new to me. (I'm drinking one right now as a matter of fact and am loving it!)

So I went searching in the pop/drink aisle at Walmart and found an amazing amount of flavors available. Some had 'energy' on them, some had 'relax' and some had 'antioxidents', while most just had the flavor name on them. I decided to get a bunch of them and take them home to see what everyone would say.

My son, who is a bit of a health nut and loves his G2 Gatorade (and had put in in his order in for some G2 before I left the house) was a bit miffed at me for not buying him the normal few bottles I usually get him. He looked at the Clear American and asked what it was. He saw that it had no caffeine, no sugars, no calories and no sodium and decided it might be good to try, though he didn't think he'd like it much because it was carbonated. He did say that even a lot of drinks that had no calories that were carbonated, were full of sodium and was surprised that this was not.

He did like it after all and said it had a good taste and wasn't too carbonated. It didn't have a bad after taste, like a lot of other 0 calorie drinks either. He tried Golden Peach and 'called' the Tangerine kind for later on.

Phew! Off the hook. Thanks Clear American sparkling flavored water!! And with 6 people in my house I'm sure these won't last long at all so I'll have to be going back to get some more!!

To see my shop and all the different flavors I found, check out my ThisMoment below.



Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Biaswhich is a vendor for Cott Beverages Inc., the manufacturer of Clear American ® brand beverages, but all the photos and opinions are my own. #CBias 


Wednesday, July 13, 2011

How do you save time?

Isn't that a good question? I was recently asked how I save time and it got me thinking. What do I do in my normal everyday life that might be a time saving opportunity for someone else. Let's see what I can think of.

My #1 time saver would be LISTS. I make a lot of them. It might seem that it would take the time to make the list and you're right, it does, but in the long run you have all your thoughts organized and in one place. You don't have to wrack your brain for you're forgetting or run around looking for something that you're sure you've missed.

#2. iPhone apps. I have apps for lists, for reminders, for appointments and so on. I've only had my iPhone for a few months and already wonder how I ever lived without it.

#3. Make lunches the night before. I used to make lunches in the morning and it was a mess. One week straight I decided I would make them at night and it stuck. The house is quiet, I don't have kids telling me what to put in their lunches or telling me what they like and don't like. The funny thing is, they've never complained about their lunches so I must be doing something right.

#4. Take the time to cut your veggies. I'm always looking for snacks for my family and I find I buy veggies like bell peppers, carrots, celery, etc and take the hour it takes to put them all in zip lock bags, that is enough snacks for the week and it's a healthy alternative to junky snacks.

#5. I keep a cooler in the trunk of my car filled with bottles of water (and some Seattle's Best Coffee for me). If I'm going to be gone for an afternoon to a child's activity, I'll stop and get a bag of ice, dump it in, and presto....water for everyone. I don't have to worry about not having anything to drink. It's a no brainer.

#6. During the school year I get my kids to set out their school clothes for the next day, on their dresser. This way there's no searching and no thinking.

#7. Do it now. I find if you put things off they pile up and it ends up taking so much longer to do. I clip coupons and I find if I don't clip them when I get them they sit in a pile and I look at them, and look at them and then I look at them some more. It takes all that time in my head thinking about what I have to do and I could have had it done by then!

#8. Crock pots. If you are going to be gone all day put supper in the crock pot and let it cook all day while you're gone. When you get home from shopping or work, you don't want to mess with a meal so if it's in the crock pot it's already done for you, not to mention that it's going to be yummy!

#9. Wake up an hour earlier. If you're anything like me, you have a house full of people and animals. If I get up an hour before anyone else I have quiet time to enjoy for myself. I can get a lot more done in that hour because there are no interruptions, no kids pulling me in different directions, no husband getting in my way, and so on.

#10. Take a day to meal plan and write it down. So often we think and think about what we are going to make for dinner and it takes up so much time. If you take a few hours on a Sunday afternoon to plan your meals for the week and the thinking is taken out of it, saving so much time. Thinking does take time after all. It clutters your brain, taking up room that the fun stuff could be instead.

So there you have it, my top 10 things I do to save time in my life. I could probably come up with more but as a woman I've learned, like you likely have, a million different little things we can do to save time, to save our sanity.

What do you do to save time?
Want to save some money on a Seattle's Best Coffee? Click here for a $1.50 coupon!

About Seattle’s Best Coffee
As coffee blenders and roasters since 1970, we’ve seen a lot come and go. We went from a tiny shop on the Seattle waterfront to being declared Seattle’s Best Coffee in a local competition. In 2003, we joined the Starbucks family which has allowed us to place more resources into further honing our special way of crafting delicious, impossibly smooth coffee. Every step of the process, from coffee cherry to your cup, is managed to fit our exacting standards and our premium approach to coffee. Now, we’re making it easier to find your perfect coffee with our new Level System.

Save $1.50 on a 4 pack today! 

It’s low calorie: Just 130 calories per can.
It’s affordable: A premium latte for just $1.49? And a 4-pack is an even better deal, at just $4.99.
It’s everywhere: Available in major grocery, convenience and other retail stores.

More info on Seattle’s Best Coffee: http://www.seattlesbest.com

Seattle’s Best Coffee on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SeattlesBestCoffee  

Follow @SeattlesBest on Twitter

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Seattle’s Best Coffee blogging program for a gift card worth $30. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”

Sunday, July 3, 2011

Grilling with #MurphyUSA

IMG_0451      IMG_0497
I had a few errands to do today so I ran to Walmart and Murphy USA.
I have to tell you, I did put what I wanted on my new iPhone app for grocery lists. I love it! I put in the item and the price and it keeps a running tally of my groceries so I know what I'm spending,what I'm going to to spend and what is still left on my list. How did I ever get along in life without it? I just don't know.
Ok, anyway. I had my items on my list on my iPhone and off I went to Walmart to pick up a few things. I had to get some gas too so I also got some Coke and a couple other things at Murphy USA. I love that these stores are so close together, it makes me happy.

So while I was out and stopped at MurphyUSA (MurphyUSA Facebook) (MurphyUSA Twitter) to gas up and get a few goodies for my barbecue tonight, I picked up some Coca Cola (Coke Facebook) (Coke Twitter), some Pringles (Facebook and Twitter) and some David Sunflower seeds (Facebook and Twitter).

It was just me and family, but with 6 of us, we can put away quite a few 'dogs'. And the Pringles? Well, they didn't stand a chance. I love them on my hot dogs for the crunch so I got about 6 chips and then all of a sudden they were gone. My son tried to eat the sunflower seeds during the Texas Rangers game tonight on tv but made more of a mess than anything else, it was funny.

Take a look below at my ThisMoment story for details about my shopping trip. If the window itself is not working you can click on the link below it to take you where you need to go.



Barbecuing with #MurphyUSA by Lisa Harris

This shop/project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias but all the opinions are solely my own.