Honor The Earth with your FEET! (sponsor spotlight)

In the Crum household we are battling every day.  We battle to live a greener life, we battle to eat healthier foods, we battle to maintain blood sugar... and the list goes on.

As a diabetic I am highly concerned about what my family eats and how we exercise.  I don't want my 3 beautiful boys to grow up fighting the same battles that we are struggling with now.  We are working on teaching them to live healthier lives by helping them learn to get exercise every day.  

One way that we practice this is through the use of a pedometer.  The Crum family, along with some of my extended family, are taking literal steps toward health.  We are walking "together" although live in different cities.  Each day we report in with our number of steps in a battle toward health.  At the end of the month the one with the most average daily steps will take home a trophy.  We will start again with counting steps for next month.  The winner so far?  My mother (I think).  

Okay, the truth is, the kids are kicking our butts.  They are inspiring us to work harder, walk more, and live healthier.  They are encouraging us to practice what we preach and put our foot where our mouth is... 

At the Crum house, as we learn to increase our steps, we are also learning to Honor the Earth by using our van less frequently.  We are learning to take care of our needs without adding to the poor air quality.

Now, for the sponsor:

GeoPalz!

This has got to be the coolest pedometer we have ever seen!  They are stylish with cute icons on the front so they look cool.  Monkey loves to show his off to anyone that will pay attention.  

This is my favorite.  Isn't it cute?  Earthy and feminine.  Love it!

First I want to tell you about the great quality of pedometers the GeoPalz sells. 

They are made with kids in mind.  The pedometer has a bent angle on the end of the clip to hold it firmly in place on pants or shoes.  There is also a "leash" with it so you can attach it doubly - if it somehow manages to slip off, it will still be holding on with the leash.  Believe me, with an active young boy, this can be useful.

These are durable.  Monkey has dropped his a number of times.  He takes it off regularly to look at the numbers and is not good at putting it back on himself.  When he looks at it, it has frequently landed on the floor.  The cute cover over the pedometer seems to help with protecting it.

GeoPalz calibrates to the individual step.  This gives a more accurate picture of how many steps are being taken.  

The pedometer also has a time and date function.  That helps with tracking steps. One great thing about this function is that you can't forget to reset it in the morning - it 0's at midnight.  (If your time is not set properly, it will reset itself in the middle of the day).

Here is the direction sheet.  I called my sister when I opened it up.  I learned about GeoPalz from her, so she was the one to gripe at about this.  What a huge set of instructions.  It took a little while for me to figure it all out and get the pedometers set up correctly.  It was not as difficult as I expected based on the size of the instruction page.  

We also had occasion to do a little problem solving.  One of the pedometers did not work right for some reason, customer service was very helpful and had no problem replacing it.  They have a lifetime guarantee on their products!

Check this out, not only are these pedometers adorable (who would have thought you could use a word like "adorable" when talking about pedometers?), they offer a website for tracking progress.  You can use their website for free!  Your kids can even earn prizes for accomplishing goals.  There are a variety of neat prizes for kids who own a geopal - they EVEN have prizes for people that sign up with a free account.  

One of the newer features?  Family tracking.  That's right, I can put all of the members of my family on the GeoPalz site, and monitor progress right there with a chart that shows each family member side by side.  I also get an email every week telling me how my children are doing with their walking.  

GeoPalz has an excellent program for helping families get active together.  They have already helped us in the battle against diabetes.  They also help us as we learn to better care for our Earth.

The price?  GeoPalz sell for only $25!  That price is totally worth it for the quality of the pedometer and the service of the website.  Make sure to check them out today!

Thanks GeoPalz!

GeoPalz will be offering a pedometer to one of my readers during the Honor the Earth event from April 12-22.  Happy Earth Day!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, I received a product or products in exchange for review.

Breakfast for dinner on vacation

A couple of weeks ago the boys and I went on a "vacation" - it wasn't a real vacation - we stayed at my parent's house for a few days because Monkey had a doctor's appointment in their area, and it was the best way we could work out transportation.

As I planned for our food needs, I was presented with the opportunity to try out Tyson's new Breakfast Bread Bowls.  Now, they're not part of our typical diet at home - but we were going to be away, on "vacation" and they're still fairly healthy - certainly healthier than a trip to McDonalds.  

We chose to do our shopping at Sam's Club in Indianapolis.  My boys LOVE Sam's Club because there are often samples of foods.  They were not disappointed by the samples this trip!  We wandered the store and looked at some fun ideas for our yard, the boys were impressed by the video selection.  We had a short but serious debate about whether or not we should buy some raised garden kits.  To read about the whole shopping trip, check out Google +.

Then we found the frozen foods.  I'm always amazed at the variety of frozen foods that Sam's Club offers.  We had a few on our shopping list, so we picked up what we needed for the week.  All the staff were friendly and helpful.  Our biggest problem?  There was a puddle on the floor in front of some of the frozen chicken.  If I hadn't been holding onto the shopping cart, I would have fallen down.

Once our cart was filled with all of the goodies on our list, we checked out and got a snack.  Sam's Club is tricky like that, they put their nice little cafe right by the registers to entice families with small children.  We had planned on getting a snack anyway, the boys always think it's fun to eat when we're in the store.  We had pretzels and chatted about our plans for the day.  What a fun time we have together when we shop.  I hope my boys never grow out of their love for shopping!

I planned to serve our Tyson breakfast bowls with green beans and fresh fruit for dinner one night while we visited. BUT - I'm kind of a dork and prefer to serve the same meal to both of my big boys whenever possible - Crackers can't have eggs - so I had to share with just Monkey while Crackers slept as a lunch one afternoon.  

These were really good.  I had one later that night as a snack... and another the next night... I had one for lunch the next day with green beans as a side while the boys napped.  Seriously, the Tyson breakfast bowls were that good, and super easy to make!  

My only complaint (other than that they disappeared too quickly) was the size of the bread bowl.  It is significantly smaller than I expected based on the packaging.  It is probably closer to what I should be eating in one sitting though.

Breakfast for dinner became breakfast for lunch, and late night snack.  Soon we'll buy some more and share them with Monkey for dinner - I just have to figure out what we'll make for Crackers when we do it!

This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias all opinions are my own.
#Cbias
#TysonBreakfast

Thanks

Just a quick thank you to the men of Chimney 1 for their hard work and excellent outcome.

Before: Bricks were crumbling and literally falling off of the chimney.  

After: 2.5 days of work and we don't have to worry about bricks falling.  We *might* even be able to have a small fire in it once in a while next winter.

Baby Love Wordless Wednesday: How do they do that?

Baby Love Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop

Painting with Nature: Preschool Project

We have a new wall hanging for the boy's room.  They adore it, because they made it.

For about a week we collected bits of "nature" in a basket by the door.  

We waited for a nice warm, sunny day, and then had some fun using our nature to create this art for their wall.

Our collection of "nature"

Getting started - Crackers chose a stick and some red paint

Working together, I loved the way they tried out different "brushes" to apply paint. 

We had some blank space so mama got creative.

Monkey decided to try his hands too.

Completed project, ready to hang in the boys room - as soon as we find a frame.

This is incredibly simple and so much fun for the boys.

Behind Closed Doors

This morning I went for a long walk with my boys.  We journeyed the 2.9 miles between the public library downtown and our house on the south side of town.  As we ventured through the busy streets of our city, I was obliged to stop whenever that silly orange hand popped up in front of me.

 It was really kind of annoying, because there weren't always cars crossing in front of us when the hand encouraged us to stay safely on the sidewalk.  Honestly, if the boys weren't with me, watching my every step, I would have crossed while that silly hand was up.

This got me to thinking about habits.  I chose not to cross when the sign said to wait because I want my children to value obeying the laws.  (Laws of the land, the home, and especially God).  I know if I don't follow rules and then try and explain it away, they'll see through it - even at 2 and 3 years old.

Now, if I change my behavior only when the boys are watching, and continue to make choices I don't want them to observer when I don't think they'll know, I'm setting myself up for failure and disappointment.  If there is something I don't want them to see me do, I need to stop doing it!

If I don't want my boys to smoke, but after every meal, I slip away to the bathroom to "wash my teeth" or step outside for "a bit of fresh air", I shouldn't be shocked when they call me out for it, or begin the habit.

If I don't want my children to swear, so I only do it when they can't hear - I should expect that either I'll slip, or they'll overhear it when I think they're not paying attention.

Kids watch us all the time.  Not only do they watch us, but they mimic us.  Our kids want to be like the adults they love so dearly.  What I do behind closed doors really matters.

So now it's time for me to analyze.  What choices am I making that I don't want my children to know about?  How can I begin to change long ingrained habits?

What about you?  Have your children seen things you don't want them to notice?  How have you changed habits?

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