Now Some Housekeeping Duties, Literally.

The Christmas tree comes down, the nativity gets packed away, the stockings all rolled up for another year. And out come the cleaning products. So when a huge box arrived just before Christmas full of Proctor and Gamble products they were put to good use this month. I would have taken a picture but there is something about a huge box arriving at the door that makes even teenagers over eager tearing it apart before mother can run to get the camera.

But I was excited. Just look at what arrived:

-Swiffer Dust & Shine furniture spray

-Swiffer WetJet

- Febreze Air Effects for the home

-Febreze Candles with advanced odor-eliminating core

-Febreze Fabric Refresher for fabrics, carpets and air

-Febreze NOTICEables

-Mr. Clean Disinfecting Wipes with Febreze Freshness

-Mr. Clean Magic Eraser with Febreze Fresh scent

-Ultra Dawn,

-Dawn PLUS with Power Scrubbers

Barb, did you notice all the products with the word Febreeze in them? Be still my heart. I'm becoming as much a Febreeze fan as Barb, but I must say I haven't quite tried it on the dog yet, Barb. LOL.

Now having a dayhome with six kids, you'd think I would have discovered the Swiffer Wet Mop by now. But this was my first try. Now I'm thinking, what on earth was I waiting for? How easy was this to use to clean up my kitchen floor after a busy day with all those kidlets. Floor cleaning will never be the same in my house again.

And can I say the Dawn for dishes is wonderful, even hubby commented on how well it worked. Yes, my hubby helps with the pots and pans. Aren't you all jealous? He's a good guy!

I've been a cleaning fiend this month and thanks P&G for the gift basket of great products to help me out and make the house smell good. Now if you just had some tips to make the aforementioned teens excited to use these products on their rooms!

I've been so busy and on the go today that this is the first time I've really sat down since 6:30 this morning! But I just wanted to pop in and let my Canadian friends know about a gift basket full of President's Choice products I recieved for review.

Now I've bought lots of President's Choice things before and have always liked their products, but I have never tried some of the more unusual things. So when I was asked if I would like this gift basket how could I say no? There was not a thing in there that I had tried before and they all sounded so good. I recieved the following:

PC Celebration Sparkling De-alcholized Wine, Blanc
PC Decadent Hot Chocolate
PC Peach and Mango Salsa
PC Memories of Fuiji 3 Mushroom Sauce
PC Lingonberry Sauce
PC Dark Chocolate Covered Caramels w/ Sea Salt
PC Black Olive & Fig Tepanade
PC Dark Chocolate Candy Cane Bark

PC Fruit Cake with Single Malt Whiskey

Now does that not make your mouth water? And may I say we've tried most of them and we were not disappointed. Everything was very good. Even the teenagers loved them. I was going to give the fruitcake to my Dad for Christmas but amazingly it disappeared very quickly when me and the kids went Christmas shopping one night. Hmmmm, who could have done that. I made the mushroom sauce with chicken tonight. Delicious. The peach and mango salsa is a really nice take on a regular salsa, which would be really good in chicken tacos or on chicken breasts, the Lingon berry sauce on top of a circle of brie cheese: yum! Everything was delish.

I will definitely be on the lookout for other products. I know I've seen some really interesting sauces from around the world by President's Choice that I've been wondering about so now I'm for sure going to give them a try! So if you're in Canada and can get to a store carrying this brand, be brave, give them a try.

Product Reviews ~ Ferrero Rondnoir

When I was asked to give this product a try, I was more than willing for a couple of reasons. First, who in their right mind is going to turn down free chocolate, and second, Ferrero Rocher, the hazelnut version, are something that is really enjoyed by several members of my family. In fact, it is an absolute favorite of Tia's and the Garden Coco Confection, their coconut/almond version, runs high on Kay's list. So we were all interested in trying out Ferrero Rondnoir, the dark chocolate version.

Ferrero Rondnoir is true to it's name and is all about the dark chocolate. It's also true to the layers of crunchy to crispy to creamy texture of their other products. They start with the crunch of dark chocolate sprinkles on creamy dark chocolate then you hit the crispy wafer on your way to the dark, creamy center.

A hit with all the other members of the family, I was the only one who didn't absolutely love it. And that was only because I found the sprinkly stuff a bit messy. But the texture experience and the dark chocolate taste was lovely. For chocolates offered in this price range, it definitely, to us, will be one we'll enjoy.

And to add sweet to sweet, the company is participating in the Share Something Sweet program where you can create virtual snowglobes to send to whomever you like. For each snowglobe created Ferrero will donate money to Share Our Strength, working to end childhood hunger in America.

Product review & More Giveaways

" Dawn Simple Pleasures combines the grease-fighting power of Dawn with a scented air freshner built into the base of the bottle, so it freshens the air as you do dishes with a lasting scent. "

I gotta say I was skeptical when I first heard of this product. I just couldn't see the point. But I am totally admitting I really liked this. The air freshner and dishsoap scent match and make the whole sink area & kitchen smell lovely, which in my case is wonderful because with a dayhome full of kids I cannot always get to the dishes immediately and they might sit in the sink a couple (ahem) hours. The bottle is small enough that it's not a big clunky thing sitting on your sink. And for those who don't like the dish soap out, it will make under your sink smell lovely, too. I got to try the Water Lily & Jasmine scent but it also comes in Apple & Pear or Lemon & Tangerine scents. And the usual disclaimer: I don't get paid to do the reviews, I just recieve the product to try and I will always be honest on what I thought of the product.




For those of you who would still like a chance to win Amy Grant's book "Mosaic" I have found someone who is not having her draw until October 26th. Visit Laura at Laura Williams' Musings to enter.




And if you lurve cookbooks like I do you'll want to walk, no fly, as fast as your fingers can click over to Molly-Coddled and enter your name. And not only is she giving away the to die for cookbook, but she's also throwing in a one year subscription to a magazine of your choice from the same publisher. Be still my heart!







Don't forget Shannon's Fall Y'all! Bloggy Giveaway. For more information and all the guidelines you can go here. The carnival starts October 29 and is being hosted at the Bloggy Giveaways site.

Monday Mish Mash

This weekend was an ultra busy one for us. Dave's uncle passed away last week and the funeral services were on Saturday. Because everybody is scattered over 3 provinces it was basically an all day affair of saying goodbye to Uncle F. and then saying hello to a new member of our family. We saw all the relatives we haven't seen in a couple years which is always really nice. The two years in between a visit doesn't seem that long. No awkwardness with this family. They just draw you right in no matter how shy you might be and accept you. It's wonderful. But boy, it is tiring.

So Sunday we were naughty and didn't go to church. We just couldn't seem to get it together on time. Kay was running in the Breast Cancer Run for the Cure, and nobody had any committements in church that morning, so for once it was easy to take the day off. For a family of five who is involved in various ways in church it is a miracle if we actually have a Sunday where no one is doing anything. Although I'm sure we missed a great service. It always works that way when we do miss. Something great went on that I wished I would have been there.

Last week we got to test a couple packages of these:

Put out by General Mills, these are not granola bars but a Nut Bar. Each bar contains only 6 natural ingrediants of roasted nuts and sunflower seeds held together in a bar with a slightly sweet coating. At the moment there are two choices of bar: Peanut Crunch and Almond Crunch. They have 2 grams of fiber, 7 grams of protein and no cholesterol.

Taste-wise these nut bars were very good. I personally like nuts with that salty sweet flavor going on. They were very crispy. And two of my kids and I liked that but my hubby and older girl thought they were brittle and would have preferred them to have a chewy kind of sweet thing holding it together rather than the crisp coating. But they also liked the flavor. All in all it's a product the whole family liked and son already requested them for the lunch bag.

And now the usual disclaimer. As always, I am not paid in any way for testing products. I only recieve for free the package of the product to try. And as always, I will be totally honest.

Menu Plan Monday is going to be late this week as I'm so darn organized that I have about 2 things left in the freezer, one of them being a turkey. So obviously I need to majorly grocery shop. I just cannot get into the mode somehow of planning my menu before I grocery shop. I like to shop the sales so that will determine what I have on my menu. And because I only shop twice a month, it just seems very daunting to menu plan before I know what is in my freezer. I don't know, maybe I'm just bucking change. But that part of it just seems overwhelming to me to change at this point. Ach, maybe I'll just get a bunch of the nut bars and go with that! ;v)

Cereal and Scents

I've got a couple of product reviews to run by you this morning. And as usual with products I do not get monetary reimbursement. I just get a free sample of the product and am asked to write an honest review.

First off Fibre One Raisin Bran Clutsters

When they first asked me to give a fibre cereal a try I thought, Blech. I can't stand fiber cereals. Can't stand how they turn soggy almost immediately in your bowl. But there is always that niggling little thought "What if this one is different", so seeing I wasn't shelling out money that I thought would end up sitting in the cupboard for a year, I said yes.

Fibre One Raisin Bran Clusters apparently has 40% of your Daily Value of fibre. That's a big plus. The taste wasn't too bad. We thought it tasted a bit like maple. Another plus. The raisins were not rock hard. Bonus. The clusters tasted good. I love an oatmeal cluster, but I wouldn't have really called it a cluster. They were pretty tiny as far as clusters go. Sogginess factor: A bit better than your standard Raisin Bran type cereal. I actually got through most of the bowl before they started to turn. The biggest bonus: 2 out of 3 of my teens loved it. That's a huge plus.
For your info from the side of the box:

serving size 1 cup

calories 170

total fat 1 g(all other fats 0)

Cholesterol 0

Sodium 260

potassium 330

total carbohydrate 45g

dietary fiber 11g

soluble fiber 3g

sugars 13g

other carbohydrates 21g

protein 4g

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Febreze Candles

I was given the "Apple Spice & Delight" scent to try and I must say that the packaging they sent it to me in was very nice. A lovely box with snaps that I'll now use for photos. Thanks Febreze. But back to the candle.

Febreze candles takes burning a scented candle one step farther by apparently having a new technology in an advanced core within the candle that is supposed to eliminate odors. While it is eliminating odors it gives off it's scent. While I am not even going to pretend to know how on earth it would do that, the scent it gave off was quite nice. Not really overpowering, but just nicely there. I don't know if it actually eliminates other smells or just covers over them nicely. One of my family who is more scent sensitive did notice a bit of an edge to the scent, however, that was not an apple/spice smell. When the candle isn't burning unless you are very close to it, you don't notice a smell. Each candle will apparently burn up to 30 hours. That a lot of candle time for under $10.

Febreze Candles come in 5 scents: Meadows & Rain, Spring and Renewal, Linen & Sky, Vanilla & Refresh, and the Apple Spice & Delight. I think I'd like to try the Meadows and Rain next.

Product Review ~ Fruity Cheerios

We got to try a new cereal out there from General Mills called Fruity Cheerios. We're Cheerios fans from way back and seeing I have six little ones running around here I jumped at the chance providing I could be totally honest! Lord knows we go through a mega amount of finger cereals around here.

Here's the scoop on Fruity Cheerio's according to the Living To Tell household: It's a thumbs up. The kids all loved the flavor, with and without milk. But don't tell the kids there's 25% less sugar.

Seriously, everyone really liked it. It wasn't sugar coated like other fruit cereals and there was still the distinct Cheerios grain taste in the background.

And if you all are interested Modern Mom is having a Fruity Cheerios "Family Fun" Contest with first prize being $500 and of course, a case of said Fruity Cheerios. Now who can't use an extra 500 smackers? Go here for more information. Contest is on until May 18.