So, to go along with your favorite recipes, what are your favorite natural cleaning products?? I love the Seventh Generation Liquid Dish Soap, All Purpose Cleaner, Bathroom Cleaner (although not fond of the smell) and Toilet Cleaner. Has anyone tried their laundry or dishwasher products? What other brands does everyone like? Or do you have recipes to make your own cleaning products?? I’m open to suggestions and would love to hear yours!

If you have a blog or post related to this topic, please feel free to share the link in the comments!

So my son and I are moving out on our own, and we’re looking for your favorite recipes! We’ve made a promise to each other that we will get back on track with our healthier eating, and we need your help! I’ve never been much of a chef, so what are your favorite, easy, healthy dishes?

If you have a blog or post related to this topic, please feel free to share the link in the comments!

Ok, so I know that I’ve fallen really behind on my blogging, but I promise to work on improving that!! In the meantime, there is STILL time for you to get passes for Blog World 2010 here in Las Vegas next week. There are a ton of great networking events going on in addition to all of the workshops and vendors at the expo itself. Will you be there?? Leave me a comment and let me know! I’d love to meet you!! I will be working during much of the expo at the CorpNet booth, so find me there, otherwise I will be at more networking events than I can keep track of!

Register now for BlogWorld and save 15% on Thursday, Weekend or Full Access Passes.

The winner of our Shop7 $28 gift certificate is comment #4, Lynn Matthews. 

Congratulations!!  Just in time for some holiday shopping!

For those of you that didn’t win, we have some great Black Friday & Cyber Monday deals for the whole weekend, so be sure to check them out.  Also, on Friday 11/27, you can use the coupon: TwitterDoorbuster at Shop7 for 50% off orders of 2 items or more.  This deal is ONLY available through Twitter, or for the readers of this blog.

Merchant Name: Legacy Learning
Offer: Black Friday Ballroom Dance Course Sale – $100 PLUS 15% OFF
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 27th thru November 30th

Merchant Name: Legacy Learning
Offer: $100 OFF ALL Learn and Master Courses
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 27th thru November 30th

Merchant Name: Legacy Learning
Offer: Used Learn and Master Courses Only $89
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 27th thru November 30th

Merchant Name: Legacy Learning
Offer: 15% OFF All Home School Courses
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 27th thru November 30th

Merchant Name: Two Little Hands Productions – Signing Time
Offer: Take $15 Off Any Order of $50 or more!
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: November 28th

Merchant Name: Ecopaper
Offer: 15% off use code  – For Black Friday
Coupon Code: ECOFRIDAY
Visit their Website
Start and End Date: Now thru November 30th

For those of you that are looking for cold and flu medications that don’t have all the extra ingredients that we don’t need, check your local Whole Foods.  My husband had the 24 hour flu, and while they didn’t have any liquid medications, or those that you would put into a glass of water, they did have several different types of medications.  I was very happy to find that Hyland’s makes a flu medication as well as a cold medication with zinc.  I’ve been looking for a cold medication with zinc ever since they took the Zicam swabs off the market, so this made me happy.  Hopefully this will help someone out this cold and flu season!  Let me know what else you use for colds and flu!

Ok, so I’m a little behind A couple days ago, I was given my first award!!  Thank you to  “Living Just Like Grandma” for giving me the One Lovely Blog Award.  I so appreciate it, especially as a new blogger!

So here are the official rules:

• Accept the award and post it on your blog.  Make sure to link back to the person who awarded you.
• Then pass it on to 15 other blogs you find worthy and make sure to let them know they have been awarded.

Ok, I’ve got my 15 blogs that I would like to award this to.  Boy did that take a while!  I was trying to give it to people who haven’t already received this award, which made it even harder.  Here they are!

1. This is Just Me and My Little World
2. The Mommy-Files
3. Eight Helping Hands
4. Just Simply Live
5. A Military Wife’s Mayhem
6. Six Feet Under
7. Aging Against the Machine
8. Elle
9. Crazy Little Thing Called Life
10. Cash Cowan
11. Mamahood Among Other Things
12. Team Edwards
13. A Happy Hippy Mom
14. The Love Shack
15. Baby Tea Leaves

So, this is twice now that I’ve bought something with honey butter flavoring and fell in love with it to only realize there was a slight after taste, yep you guessed it, they both had artificial sweeteners in it. The first was Honey Butter flavored snack stix of some kind that I can’t think of right now, but this most recent one, just now actually shocked me. I love my Pillsbury crescents, grands and grands jrs, but have now learned that I need to check the ingredients on any of them that are flavored. The new Pillsbury Grands Jrs in honey butter flavor contain sucralose!!

If you are trying to avoid artificial sweeteners, be sure to stay away from most flavored waters, including the new pur filters for your faucet that flavor your water, most energy drinks except Regular Red Bull & Rockstar, and pretty much any individual serving powder drink mix. The only individual drink mix that I’ve found to NOT contain any artifical sweeteners is Country Time Lemonade, everything else has them, Kool-Aid has both.

It has pretty much come down to this; You have to read the ingredients on literally everything you consume.

Another ingredient that is quite prevalent that many people don’t realize or pay attention to is petroleum. Petroleum is found in products ranging from paraffin candles, to cosmetics, to bath & body products, skin care and more! Most of your inexpensive moisturizers that you will buy aren’t really hydrating your skin. They are putting a thick layer of petroleum on your skin so that it FEELS moisturized, rather than actually being absorbed into your skin. A lot of facial products will do the same thing, so that you think they work great and are fixing the problems, but are instead hiding them. All that vaseline is, is petroleum, the same thing that we put into our cars!! When you burn paraffin candles, and you notice the black soot? That is a result of the petroleum in the wax. I LOVE soy candles because they burn completely clean, and I know that I am not polluting the air that I and my family are breathing. Ever wonder why it seems like you constantly need chapstick once you start using it?? It’s a result of the petroleum in the product. There are many reasons that I have changed over much of my skin and body care to natural products, and petroleum is a big factor. If everyone would do a little research to learn more about ingredients, we would find that we are much healthier, as well as depleting less of our natural resources.