Chaos Theory Reviews

Mom Central shot me an email not too long ago and wondered if I’d be interested in sampling and reviewing the new Ocean Spray Cranergy drinks - a cranberry juice with energy-boosting green tea.

Well, a) cranberry is the only juice I can claim to truly like, and b) I’m a mother who works at home so I can always use an energy boost beyond the basic cup of coffee. Of course I was interested!

I was sent two bottles of the Cranergy juice. I read the label and there was nothing weird or chemical in it like you see in those bizarre energy drinks, stuff that scares me off lest it leave me shaking in the corner. The only thing Cranergy contained for an energy kick was the green tea and some extra B vitamins.

I took a bottle with me to the park one day when I didn’t really feel like going but felt an obligation because the kids needed to run around. I figured it was the best time to try the juice.

First of all, the taste surprised me at the first sip but I liked it once I got past that. If you don’t like green tea you probably won’t like this juice because that was what made the cranberry taste so different. I happen to love green tea so it was fine for me.

As for my energy levels, it really did seem to help. I ended up spending almost two hours in the park that day whereas I had planned on staying only for about a half hour. What was nice about it was that it wasn’t that caffeine buzz that gives you a rush and then lets you crash. It also wasn’t a wired high. It was just a nice, smooth feeling of not being so tired anymore.

George tried some too and also noticed a boost. I’m not sure if he loved the flavor as much as I did but he drank it all so I think that says something.

I am definitely interested in getting my hands on some more. I always start my day off with a coffee but the afternoon is when I need an extra “oomph”. Unfortunately, that’s not a good time for me to have coffee. I much prefer the idea of drinking some tasty juice that will get me over that middle-of-the-day hump.

I was asked by the Parent Bloggers Network if I’d like a chance to review Were You Raised by Wolves? Clues to the Mysteries of Adulthood by Christie Mellor. It sounded like a fun read so I said yes.

I was not disappointed at all.

The book is mainly aimed at people in their early 20s who are ready to leave home and forge a life of their own. Ideally, parents will teach their kids how to navigate things like how to clean your home, how to scrub a toilet, and that you shouldn’t show up at a dinner party empty-handed and salivating over free food. However, if you’ve missed out on some of the finer etiquette points or if you were raised by a neat freak who did everything for you, this book is a helpful little guide.

It’s not a fussy etiquette book, with all the delicate little frou-frou things that are important to high society folks or royalty - it’s just straight-forward basic survival. It teaches you how to avoid being the obnoxious “I’m going to be everyone’s best friend” person in the office when you just started working there last week, how to partake in a little alcohol without being the falling-down drunk everyone talks about, and how to make your bed properly since your Mom won’t be coming to your apartment to do it for you every morning.

At my ripe old age (ha) I knew most of the information in the book already, some from my mother and some from life experience. However, even I got a few tips here and there (I wish I had known about mayo taking care of water marks on wood five years ago, my poor table) and it’s perfect reading for anyone who is ready to leave home.

In fact, it might even be a good idea to make it required reading before anyone is allowed to move out, just to make sure all the bases are covered!

Recently, Mom Central contacted me to see if I’d be interested in reviewing the new Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes Gold cereal. I love cereal, so I replied to that with a very enthusiastic YES.

My enthusiasm didn’t diminish at all after receiving the sample. The new Gold cereal is sweetened with honey. I’ve never been a fan of the ridiculously sugary cereals, not even when I was a kid. My favorites were always the healthy ones that didn’t even come with a toy inside. When we do our groceries now, we still stick to the healthier cereals and if we must get sweet ones, I do like to get the honey flavors.

This particular cereal was perfect. It’s not sickly sweet, but it still appeals to the kids who want the illusion of sugar. Basically it straddles that fine line between “this is delicious!” and “this is good for us”.

I would definitely buy the cereal again. The box we received for the review was a full sized cereal box but it still only lasted two and a half days (we’re all cereal fans here, we need a 12-step program). I’m hoping that it’s available up here in Canada or I’ll be stalking the cereal aisle at the store until it is!

Ever since I was a kid I’ve preferred healthy cereals over the sugar bombs that most children enjoy. Seriously - my two favorite cereals as a kid? Raisin Bran and Special K. Without any added sugar from the sugar bowl. I was weird that way I guess, but it still stands true now, I love good cereal that isn’t laden with excess sugar.

Recently I was given the chance to receive some complimentary Special K BlissCereal Bars thanks to Mom Central, and I would have been crazy to say no!

I received two boxes full of cereal bar goodness. One was a chocolate-raspberry flavor and the other was chocolate-orange. Oh my. The raspberry bars were definitely very good. However, I’ve often said that I would like to personally make out with the first person who mixed chocolate and orange as a thank you to them for the best flavor combination ever, so I absolutely loved those bars. Unfortunately for me, Hayley loved those ones best as well and so I had to share. Alas.

They were both very delicious and perfect for sticking in your purse (or camera bag if you’re me) to munch on at the park or while you’re standing around with the other moms, waiting for your kid to get released from school.

Overall, the Special K Bliss Cereal Bars went over very well in our home. George enjoyed them as well, and even Breanna ate one even though she’s usually not that into cereal (it may have been the chocolate appeal). Hayley and I battled it out over most of them. Let me put it to you this way - both boxes, totaling 12 bars, were empty in two days after they arrived.

I’d call that a hit!

You know what’s a lot of fun? Opening up a package that was delivered to your door and finding a big box of a brand new cereal. It’s no secret that I love food, so getting a free box of the new Kelloggs Wild Animal Crunch to review courtesy of Mom Central was awesome.

Unfortunately, Hayley was home from school and Breanna was not napping so I had two bugs kids clamoring around me to try it. The up side was that I was able to give them a bowl of cereal for a snack for an immediate review from the two people that the cereal is actually geared towards. Later in the evening, George had a bowl and I had a bowl of my own for breakfast the next morning.

The overall verdict is a good one. Breanna ate most of hers and Hayley ate some for breakfast every day until the box was empty. George wasn’t sure what flavor it was supposed to be but enjoyed it enough to eat the whole bowl. Meanwhile, I loved it.

I’m generally not a fan of sugary cereals. I just don’t like them and even as a kid I preferred more “grown-up” cereals without all the frosty coatings. However, I found Wild Animal Crunch, with its chocolate and vanilla flavored animal shapes had just enough of a a sweet taste to make it seem like a treat while not being so sugary as to turn me off. It also gave a good start for breakfast rather than hopping my kids up on a sugar high first thing in the morning which is always good.

As a bonus, because Kelloggs collaborated with Animal Planet for the new cereal, we also got a complimentary copy of the entire first season of Meerkat Manor. Breanna thought the meerkats were kind of funny and looked at them from time to time in between playing but Hayley? Hayley was enthralled and begged to keep watching episodes. I think I’ll have to re-introduce her to Animal Planet if she loved it that much.

Overall, Wild Animal Crunch was a hit in our household. The only downfall for me is that being in Canada means it probably isn’t available yet. I don’t even know if it WILL hit our shelves up here. Hopefully it will because I’d definitely add it to my shopping list. If you can get it in your area, I’d definitely recommend trying it yourself!

When Hayley was just a baby, we bought our very first Baby Einstein product. We loved it and so did she. While I didn’t want a slack-jawed baby perched in front of the tv, it was nice that a 20-minute DVD could hold her attention in the exersaucer long enough for me to prepare supper, wash some dishes, or just eat something. We later accumulated a decent collection of their DVDs

When Breanna was born, she got ripped off. By then Hayley had moved on to watching things that were more interesting for her age group so the little one never really got to see much Baby Einstein.

I was asked my MomCentral to be a part of the new Baby Einstein blog tour to test out a new DVD, Baby’s First Moves. They sent me a complimentary DVD and I was happy to show it to Breanna, who had only seen a handful of their DVDs so far.

I thought it might be a little too young for her; she’s almost 2 and a half now, and the DVD is for ages three months and up. However, I underestimated the power of young kids watching babies. It features a lot of cute kids (and of course the well-known puppets as well) bopping around to catchy music, discovering their own movement. Without any prompting at all, Breanna was dancing (she loves music), clapping, and laughing. Every so often she would exclaim about how “that baby is soooo cute!”

I still stand by my love of the Baby Einstein products. They’re not about passive television viewing. While children can certainly watch the DVDs by themselves, they also offer learning opportunities and they get the kids to interact and take part.

If you’ve enjoyed Baby Einstein in the past, this would make a great addition to your collection and if you’re still on the fence, I’d say it’s worth making this one your first - it’s fun!

As much as I love to cook, I sometimes find myself making the same thing repeatedly. Right now we’re in a cycle of chili, spaghetti, chicken in the oven, and a few other things to break up the monotony.

On the one hand, I don’t really mind. They’re all easy to make, delicious to eat, and they work well in the cold Winter weather. On the other hand, it would be nice to eat something different, you know? I do have a ton of recipes but sometimes when it’s time to make my shopping list, I lack the motivation to actually look through them to make something else, so it’s just simple to write down the ingredients for my staple meals.

That’s why I was interested when the Parent Bloggers Network offered me a chance to try a free account over at Relish! which is a meal planning site. I created my pro bono account and logged myself in to see what I could find.

The site is handy, no doubt about it. First of all, if you were to log in right now, it would wish you a happy Valentine’s Day, and then it suggests an appropriate meal menu (including stuff for kids) and a movie to go with it. Meanwhile, the regular features include a weekly menu selection. You can choose the Express menu which offers up some recipes with the promise that you “don’t think, just eat”. Believe me, most weekdays, not having to think but ending up with a tasty dinner is a wonderful thing. At the same time, you can choose from an entire list of recipes to create your own custom menu. I’ve only been on the site for a week, but I’m assuming that the menu changes from one week to the next.

The meals are healthy but not complicated, perfect for people in a rush who don’t want to eat take-out every night or cook things that are frozen in a box.

Aside from the menu, you can also choose to search for specific recipes, and they have a slow cooker section as well as cooking for the freezer - something I always mean to do and never do!

I really kind of like the dinner and movie section - much like the Valentine’s message, it features a movie of the week with a menu to match. It reminds me of a show that used to be on Friday nights where they would show a movie, and in between segments and commercials, the hosts would cook up a dinner or snack that went well with it. It’s fun and would be perfect for a nice weekly Family Night.

The only real annoyance I had was the fact that many of the links launch a new browser tab, which is a habit that drives me nuts. Internal links in particular should just open in the current window and you can use the back button. But that was the only thing I found that made me twitch and it’s certainly forgivable.

Overall, I do like the site, but I’m not sure I would pay to use it. While it’s useful, I think that there are a lot of food sites that offer menu ideas, complete with required grocery lists free of charge. Because of that, I don’t know if people would want to pay for a menu, but if you’re really stuck for ideas or if planning a weekly menu yourself is one of those chores you absolutely can’t stand, this kind of site could help you out.

In the meantime, they do offer a free trial so go ahead and check it out and see if it’s what’s missing from your kitchen life!

I was really excited to get a chance to read Felicia Sullivan’s memoir, The Sky Isn’t Visible From Here before it had even hit the shelves. I have been corresponding with Felicia for quite some time now, and she’s the one responsible for a great deal of the books I receive for review, so I was eager to read something that she had written herself.

From the time I cracked the book open, I didn’t want to stop reading until it was done. However, despite my desire to read, read, read, I found myself repeatedly having to put the book down. Not because the book was terrible, quite the contrary, it was written in a very compelling way. However, it was also very difficult to read. It wasn’t a fictional novel, it was the story of Felicia’s own life, from the childhood she lived through with a smothering and drug-addicted mother to her adulthood with her own addictions. More than once I would find myself so incredibly shocked by something that had happened to her, particularly as a child, that I had to stop reading for a bit, just to compose myself. Frequently I would put the book down and go hug my own kids.

But don’t let that dissuade you because this isn’t a downer of a book by any means. Rather, it’s a book of hope. As you read along through all the things that Felicia survived and fought against, you will find yourself cheering. It’s a story that shows you that you can overcome anything, not just the people around you but your own issues and demons.

And I’m not going to spill the beans, but the final chapter of the book is by far my favorite.

I love memoirs, so I may be biased a bit, but the book was definitely incredible. It’s a little strange to say that you loved a book about someone’s hard times, it always comes out sounding a little wrong, like you’re saying, “it is just AWESOME that you had such a difficult life, great story!” But honestly, I loved the book for the way the story is told and the uplifting feeling of hope that is never completely hidden no matter what else was going on.

Highly recommended.

I was lucky enough to take part in the Mom Central Cranium Blog Tour recently. I’ve always loved Cranium games (we already own Cariboo and Hullabaloo, both big hits here, especially the latter which gets you up and moving), so I was eager anyway, but I was particularly interested since this is a new division of Cranium, their Bloom line. It’s especially made for preschoolers and help kids learn while they play. I am a big believer in learning by playing and learning by doing, so I signed on right away.

I got two complimentary games from the company, the Let’s Play, Count & Cook Game, and the Let’s Go to the Zoo Seek & Find Puzzle.

While the cooking game is a little too advanced for Breanna, Hayley still had a lot of fun playing with it, even at age five. The basic premise of the game is to choose a recipe from the book, and then roll the dice to move around the board, trying to collect all the ingredients. The person who picks up the last ingredient wins. She had a great time playing it, especially when you get a wild card and can choose any extra ingredient to put in the recipe (pickles in the cupcakes? Why not?).

Meanwhile, Breanna enjoyed the zoo puzzle game tremendously. At only age two, she doesn’t quite have the hang of putting puzzles together, but she gave it her best shot, helping me. I would give her the right piece and encourage her to turn it different ways until it fit properly - she was so proud every time she fit two pieces together! Once the puzzle is together, there are game cards that ask you to find things in the picture - can you find the penguin? How about something red? A puzzle version of “I Spy”, basically, and she enjoyed looking for things as I read them out.

Both games are great. They’re both short and quick to play which is an important factor to consider when you’re dealing with pre-schoolers - they don’t have the attention span to play something as long as, say, Monopoly. In the cooking game, for instance, you can move your game piece in either direction. What’s great about that is that you don’t have to spend 20 minutes going around and around the board, desperately trying to land on the one last ingredient that you need. It’s really nice to have some games that do take that time into consideration.

I definitely recommend them to parents of preschoolers. I especially recommend them if you also have older kids because I know one thing that offends Breanna terribly is having to watch Hayley play a game while not being able to join in - it’s really great to have something that she can play too.

Then again, it’s Cranium. Cranium rocks anyway, so the fact that they’ve created a great line for younger kids? No surprise to me at all!

Courtesy of Parent Bloggers Network, I was given a chance to test out and review Jump Start World, which is a learning video game for kids in the kindergarten through grad two age groups. I knew I had to give it a try because 1) I love things that are fun but help my kids learn at the same time without drilling information into them and 2) Hayley loves to play around on the computer. She often uses George’s computer and loves to play games on various kid-friendly sites.

Installing the game wasn’t exactly the simplest process in the world but after some persistence, she was set up and ready to go. The game covers reading (Reading Arcade), math (Math Arcade), and an area for calendars and graphs and more (My Cabin). The reading area is particularly helpful for Hayley right now because although she’s been writing and recognizing capital letters for quite some time now, she has more trouble with lower case. Playing the game has really helped her in combination with the work she’s doing at school.

As for the math, Hayley loves math challenges (she doesn’t get that from me!) and has recently started practicing basic addition, so the game couldn’t have come at a better time.

The whole thing is laid out in a fun and entertaining kid-intuitive way, but it’s more than a game, it’s educational too and you can’t beat that. Every time they learn something new they earn little gems which they can use in the game’s store, they get to explore new worlds. She’s having such a good time that she barely even notices that she’s still learning. You can test it out yourself with a free trial download from the JumpStart website, and if you and your kids like it, you can purchase it for $19.95.