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Natural Parenting Beyond the Baby Years

2016/10 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment

Just under five years ago I was pregnant, expecting my first child, and all alone. My husband and myself had moved out of state just months earlier, for an opportunity to grow in his career. 5 years later, he’s back in the same place, just in a wholly different position, but I digress.

As I was saying, I was pregnant…and alone. Kind of like Naked and Afraid, except without all of the nakedness and wild animals. My mother wasn’t in my life, and my girlfriends were hours away — I had no village to help me. What I did have, however, was a computer with an Internet connection, so I found community online, while researching natural ways to bring my baby into this world and care for him.

I was pregnant and alone. Kind of like Naked and Afraid, except w/out all of the nakedness. I had no village; I found my natural parenting community online.

I discovered the cloth diaper community, which lead to me discovering babywearing, and I soon found myself buying cloth diapers and researching different carriers. By the time my son finally arrived, I was fully immersed in the cloth diapering community, and belonged to several natural parenting groups.

I think I heard about MommyCon in 2012, shortly after my son was born. I purchased my tickets for Philadelphia MONTHS in advance, and eagerly counted-down to the day, blogging along the way. My son was just one year old when we attended MommyCon Philly, and they were in their first year of the conference, working out kinks, growing rapidly, and giving people like me (on my island) community in-person, if only for a day.

Parenting beyond the baby years means that I find lots of photos like these in my phone (despite my phone being locked!)

Parenting beyond the baby years means that I find lots of photos like these in my phone (despite my phone being locked!)

My son’s now four-years-old, and I’m not going to have anymore children, having decided, sometime after my third loss, that it was just too difficult to keep losing babies. These days, I don’t refer to what I do as a mother as natural parenting, because the label no longer really matters (if it ever did). I feed my son whole foods, am the annoying mom who tells her kiddo’s school that he’s sugar-sensitive and under orders from his pediatrician to bring in his own snack (well, at his last school, anyway), and generally assert my control over his diet [before I no longer have control in the teen years]. At four, my son has a solid appreciation for nature, and I encourage him to get dirty and play (discover); one of his favorite things to do is to spend time in the creek, hunting for shells and throwing rocks, a nice hike diversion.

 

A video posted by Lauren Stevens (@laurenbethstevens) on Mar 9, 2016 at 9:54am PST

 

I still care about the products I use on my son’s skin, and do the best I can to keep toxins out of our home. In essence, I don’t see myself doing anything really different from the majority of parents out there, so there really isn’t a need to categorize parenting at this stage, is there?

Whereas I was concerned about nurturing my son early on, being mindful of his needs as a baby, I now focus my efforts on nurturing his mind, and tending to his needs in a way that teaches him how to be independent. I guess you could call this age the detachment phase of attachment parenting. With my son’s needs not as great as they were when he was an infant and toddler, I now have more time to focus on my own needs and my own identity, apart from being a mother. So, what does MommyCon have to do with all of this?

Well, my friends, MommyCon is really an all-ages parenting conference, with sessions for expecting parents through seasoned parenting vets. MommyCon San Jose is offering sessions perfect for those parents of older children, such as Geek Parenting: Raising Kids on Comics, Sci-Fi & Fantasy (love it!), Let Them Eat Dirt: Saving Your Child from An Oversanitized World, Mom Guilt: Why It Sucks & How to Give It the Middle Finger, and more! And then there’s this:

mmcn-san-jose-halloween-1

Yep! Not only do you get to check out all of the MommyCon San Jose awesomeness at San Jose Convention Center, but you get to take part in a COSTUME CONTEST!

If you’ve not yet purchased your tickets for MommyCon San Jose, you can save $5 from each ticket with code: LOWREN16

Okay, back to the costume contest. Costumes will be judged in THREE categories: Babywearing, Family, and Individual (adult costume). Each category winner will receive an awesome prize, with the Babywearing costume winner receiving an ORBIT CAR SEAT! So, put on your thinking caps, grab your tickets (if you haven’t already), and join in the MommyCon fun!

If you’ve attended your nearby MommyCon event, check out the 2017 event calendar! I’m signed-up to attend MommyCon NYC, but have always wanted to visit Memphis, so… Want to save $5 off of your 2017 MommyCon ticket prices? Use my code: LOWREN17

Interested in buying organics at wholesale prices? I now live in the boonies, so Thrive Market is my go-to for organics and natural products. Use my link to save 15% off of your first purchase, free shipping, and donate one membership to a low-income family through the Thrive Gives program. So many benefits, my friends!

#Workbook for him, #adultcoloringbook for me… #coloring #coloringbook #childrensworkbook #starwars meets #secretgarden @johannabasford @workmanpub

A photo posted by Lauren Stevens (@laurenbethstevens) on Aug 24, 2016 at 11:06am PDT

 

This post contains affiliate links.

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Filed Under: all, Cloth Diapering, Editorial, Natural Living, Parenting

Budget Decorating: Master Bedroom

2016/07 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment

Budget decorating doesn't have to be a buzz-kill, use tools to shop smartly with store coupons and Ebates!

I am exhausted. But I’m also contented.

I am going to die in this home because the mortgage process was a nightmare, and moving was not exactly my favorite thing, especially during a freakish heatwave. Those niggly things aside, my husband did a great job picking out our house (I was away on business the weekend he looked at it and put in an offer) — I love our home! I’m having a blast, challenging myself to shop smartly and employ budget decorating (so we can get more rooms done while spending less).

Budget decorating doesn't have to be a buzz-kill, use tools to shop smartly with store coupons and Ebates!

After living in a cramped cottage for two-and-a-half years, I’m embracing the spaciousness of our new home (it’s 3x the size of our last house) and enjoying Christmas-like moments as we open boxes that have been in storage for three years. I’m also excited to finally, truly merge households with my husband (it’s only taken us 5 1/2 years, but hey, better late than never, right?). We’re having fun furniture shopping together, so both of our tastes are reflected in our home.

Decorating is expensive, so I’ve found some great shortcuts that I’m more than happy to pass along.

The master bedroom is an entirely different beast, as I wanted an all-new bedroom. Our old furniture would go to the guest room, so we’d be starting from scratch. This is where Pinterest comes in incredibly handy, as I was able to shop and pin ideas to a dedicated board.

I wanted to create a new bedroom for my husband and myself, without breaking the bank, so I used my savvy shopping skills to get it done. First, if you don’t have a free Ebates account, stop and sign up NOW! Sign up using my Ebates referral link and you’ll get $10 to start your account balance!

Okay, now that you’ve started your Ebates account, you’re ready to shop! A handful of items I found for the master bedroom happened to be on the same site, Overstock.com. I wanted a clean, simple look with sharp lines, which is why I decided to go mid-century modern with the room.

Budget decorating doesn't have to be a buzz-kill, use tools to shop smartly with store coupons and Ebates!

Nightstand on the left is West Elm, purchased at great savings in their Lancaster outlet store, and duvet cover from IKEA “As Is” bin

Is it strange that I planned our bedroom around a…dresser (that we didn’t even own)? In fact, the dresser was the last piece I purchased! I fell in love with a patchwork dresser on Overstock, but it wasn’t as much of a necessity as the bed or the mattress (and is out of stock more often than it is in). With my first purchase at Overstock, I logged into Ebates to ensure that I got 2% back on my purchase, and then ordered the platform bed, two sets of sheets, and a Club O membership (5% back on purchases). My coupon paid for my Club O membership, I earned 5% back on that purchase AND I earned 2% of that purchase back on Ebates. Whew! Did you follow all of that?

We love our platform bed; incredibly easy to assemble and superior quality design. What’s even better is the company who makes it: eLuxurySupply.com. Their story is simple, and the company is veteran owned and operated out of Indiana. eLuxurySupply is a company that is now on our radar for future purchases, and should be on yours as well.

I can’t forget the mattress. We went from a Queen bed to a King, so we also needed to purchase a new mattress. After seeing all of the hype from Purple’s clever “egg test” advertising, I decided to shop for similar mattresses in the market. One way or another, I stumbled upon Ghostbed, probably through Facebook advertising, and chose them for several reasons; Ghostbed’s CEO is a veteran, and as such, he gives back to military members and veterans, even extending the military discount to family members of servicemen and women (a proud Air Force brat, I took advantage of the discount). Secondly, Ghostbed is 100% USA made. Admittedly, this wasn’t the main reason I chose them, but rather, an added bonus. The mattress is divine, by the way! Oh, and Ghostbed has an awesome referral program — through their Share the Love program, you can save $50 off of your mattress purchase (and I’ll receive $50 towards the purchase of a mattress from them)!

Budget decorating doesn't have to be a buzz-kill, use tools to shop smartly with store coupons and Ebates!

My next steal was this vintage chest of drawers ($85, found on Craigslist) and the antique mirror ($14 at an antique store + the cost of yellow paint). The mirror was a chance purchase, as we were driving on a back country road and happened to see an antique store going out of business; I nabbed the mirror for 50% off and we got an $800 coffee table for…$128!

My next purchase was for our living room, which isn’t yet finished — still have to order a sofa from Joybird — so I won’t go into much detail. Our living room is basically windows, lots and lots of windows. I purchased sheers (Ebates 6% back +  Kohl’s super sale + coupon + additional % off for using Kohl’s card + Kohl’s cash + Rewards) and curtain hardware; the curtain hardware I purchased through Overstock, again using Ebates to get 2% back, used a coupon and applied my Club O rewards from the previous purchase. I’m saving some serious money here, my friends — if you need tips, just shoot me an email!

Budget decorating doesn't have to be a buzz-kill, use tools to shop smartly with store coupons and Ebates!

I custom-ordered the drapes for our bedroom from a manufacturer overseas; not only was I able to find a unique print, I was able to have the drapes custom-made for just over $100. I used a birthday gift card to order the curtain hardware for the bedroom through Amazon style=, and as you can see in the above photo, my drapes were too heavy for the size/quality rod I purchased (I should have known better than to cut corners!), but the dip in the middle was solved by picking up additional brackets (we have two windows in the bedroom) from Home Depot, to anchor the middle of the rod.

Then came the final items — the patchwork dresser and our headboard. Again, I used coupons for these items (I ordered separately), again using Ebates, and applying my Club O rewards to the purchases. I won’t lie, it took me an entire day to assemble the dresser, but it was SO worth it!

Now that our master bedroom is complete, save for a few yellow nicknacks (and maybe a few macrame air plant holders), my focus is back to the living room (and eventually the master bathroom — I’ll just keep that door closed for now). We have sheers hung, I just need to have drapes made and order our sofa. My husband and I had a great time choosing the fabric and wood for our sofa, now I just need to be patient and wait for our Joybird sofa to arrived (October 2016 – the wait might kill me!). My sofa purchase is your reward, though — if you use my referral link, you can save 20% off of your first Joybird purchase!

Joybird-Liam

I can’t wait to receive our bright and lively Liam sofa from Joybird!

What tricks do you have for decorating your home, without breaking the bank?

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OurPact: Manage Your Child’s Screentime

2016/06 By Lauren B. Stevens 1 Comment

Until a couple months ago, I had no reason to worry about my [almost] four-year-old son accessing content I’d rather he not see on the internet…until he was gifted an iPad. Not only did his LeapPad Ultra (which didn’t allow him to surf the web) get pushed to the side, but a true screen addiction began.

The OurPact app helps parents manage their children's screen time at the touch of a button.

After having D answer a couple of my phone calls on his iPad (super stressful because they were about our mortgage application), and several tantrums over screen time, I instituted the use of an egg timer. Based on behavior, my son was allotted 15-30 minute increments on his iPad, and when the bell rang, he was to turn it over. Then I was introduced to OurPact.

In under 5 minutes, I was able to upload the OurPact app, register an account, install the app on D’s iPad and begin scheduling, or granting, screen time for D and his tablet. If you really want to drive your kiddo nuts, select the block feature from your device — all of my kiddo’s apps disappeared from his iPad (I was able to restore them before the waterworks began).

The best part of OurPact is that you, as a parent, are able to manage your children’s devices from any internet-enabled device. Away from home and the sitter texts you to let you know your kiddo is misbehaving? With the touch of a button you’re able to take away their internet privileges! Ah, the control. Seriously, my egg timer is a great example of how little I rely on technology (I still use a paper planner and handwrite checks to pay bills), but OurPact really is a great way to manage your children’s screen time. Maybe I’ll explain why D’s iPad “stops working” when he gets older, but right now, the whole, “I don’t know why it’s doing that, I think you need to give it a rest” bit works.

OurPact allows parents to block out times when apps (including social media) or internet access is disabled from their children's devices.

Want to make sure that your children only use their phones for emergency calls during school hours, or have no distractions in the evening during homework time or bedtime? You’re able to block out times when apps (including social media) or internet access is disabled from your children’s devices. While I don’t have a teenager, I can definitely see how this can come in handy for enforcing internet rules of usage and safety.

Those of you with older children will appreciate the OurPact Family Contract, easily downloaded and printed from the website. Since open communication is one of the best ways to keep your child safe online, print out the contract and have a discussion with your pre-teen or teen before signing. Questions can be addressed in the conversation, so there are no grey areas in the future.

Now that you’re excited about all of the benefits OurPact offers, I have something even more exciting to share with you — the app is FREE! Yes, you can download the OurPact app for free, available for iPhone, and features a Web app for parents to easily access from any device. OurPact is able to manage your children’s iOS and Android devices. Don’t wait to have the conversation with your children, download the OurPact app and contract, and get started.

You can discover more about OurPact by visiting them at OurPact.com, and staying up-to-date the latest news and updates via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

Don’t have a tablet, but want to test OurPact on one? Enter this giveaway for an iPad Air, sponsored by OurPact:

OurPact is giving one lucky winner an iPad Air!

OurPact iPad Air2 Giveaway

*This post is sponsored by OurPact; all opinions expressed are my own.

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Rout.com: Shopping with Ease

2016/05 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment

As I sit here, with my fingers crossed that we are able to close on our new home within a day or two of our scheduled closing, I’m also thinking about outfitting our new home with furniture and window treatments. If you’re an online shopper, like I am, Rout.com is your shopping nirvana.

Rout.com helps consumers shop with ease, by notifying them when select items experience price drops. The best feature? It's free to use!

In the five years my husband and I have been married, we’ve not purchased a lot of furniture together. We both came to the marriage with our own homes full of furniture and favorite pieces, carefully selected throughout our 20s and 30s, which we’ve attempted to pare down over our years together. We’ve also rented homes because we’ve moved frequently for my husband’s job, and we weren’t ready to commit to custom furniture, selected specifically for a home that we would just be, well, renting.

After we started the home buying process, just six weeks ago, I got busy planning each room in the house (my office being my favorite project). I can’t tell you how much fun it’s been, creating vision boards for each room, able to decorate any way I want! Since it’s not especially practical to buy all of the furniture at once, unless you have a ton of disposable income, it helps to have idea boards with select pieces for each room. What helps even more is to have our ideas saved in our Rout.com account, so that we’re notified when an item has a price drop — who doesn’t love buying at the best price possible?

I’m thrilled when I feel as though I’ve been able to negotiate a deal on something (our car and home being the last two “big” negotiations of mine), and Rout.com helps me feel that I’m getting the best price on items I want. Take a look at my master bedroom board:

Rout.com helps consumers shop with ease, by notifying them when select items experience price drops. The best feature? It's free to use!

 

With Rout.com, you’re not just limited to housewares (that’s just my current focus). With over 150 participating stores, and over 85 million products, Rout.com allows you to search for virtually any item you’re looking for — and it’s perfect for planning your holiday shopping!

Price Tracking

Once you’ve created your free Rout.com account, it’s time to start “window shopping”! I decided to create boards based on each room I’m planning to outfit: Master Bedroom, D’s Room, Office, Living Room. When I’m ready to start serious shopping, I select those items I’m positive I want to purchase and select the “Start Tracking” link for each item:

Rout.com helps consumers shop with ease, by notifying them when select items experience price drops. The best feature? It's free to use!

 

I’m pretty positive that this is the upholstered headboard I’m going to purchase for our bedroom, so I enter the price at which I’ll jump on the item — $295 sounds good to me — and input that number to begin tracking. I’m not sure I’ll get the headboard at that price, as it’s currently at it’s lowest price historically (down from $329), but we’ll see (I have time to wait).

Price History

If you’re a numbers or statistics person, you’ll love Rout.com’s price history feature. You’re able to input a date range to take a look at your item’s pricing history, and can possibly spot trends in price drops. Here’s an example chart for an area rug I have my eye on:

Rout.com helps consumers shop with ease, by notifying them when select items experience price drops. The best feature? It's free to use!

So, while I await word from my agent about closing, I’ll happily distract myself by adding items to my Rout.com boards (hoping that we’ll be able to outfit our home soon). Well, what are you waiting for? Get shopping!

You can learn more by visiting Rout.com and opening a free account for yourself. Be sure to visit Rout.com on social media via Facebook and Twitter.

 

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Filed Under: all, Editorial, reviews|sponsored, sponsored

My Thoughts On Greeting Card Holidays

2016/05 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment

Fresh off the wave of Mother’s Day greetings, salutations and a slew of Facebook posts, I thought I’d share a little about why you saw no mention of Mother’s Day on my Facebook page. It’s simple, really, I’m just not that into greeting card holidays.

greeting-card-holidays

If you’re not familiar with what a greeting card holiday is, or more often known as a Hallmark holiday, the name is pretty self-explanatory. Here’s an explanation from Wikipedia:

“Hallmark Holiday” is a term used predominantly in the United States to describe a holiday that is perceived to exist primarily for commercial purposes, rather than to commemorate a traditionally or historically significant event. The name comes from Hallmark Cards, a privately owned American company, that benefits from such manufactured events through sales of greeting cards and other items. Holidays that have been referred to as “Hallmark Holidays” include Grandparents Day, Sweetest Day, Boss’s Day, and Secretary’s Day. Some people also consider St. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day to be such days.

Sweetest Day is an interesting holiday, one I’d never even heard of until I attended college in Northwest Pennsylvania — yep, it’s totally a greeting card holiday.

Anyway, I just don’t feel the need to make a big deal out of many of these holidays because a.) they’re commercially driven, and b.) why don’t people celebrate others all year round? In fact, my husband and I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day, at my request (plus, our wedding anniversary is two weeks after V-Day).

I’m grateful that my husband shows his love for me year-round, and doesn’t need a special day or occasion to send me flowers — we work well this way. However, I do understand that for many women, and many of my girlfriends, Valentine’s Day is one of the only days a year that their significant other bestows flowers upon them, or goes out of his way to show how much he appreciates his wife or girlfriend. This makes me sad, because if you only do something once a year, the concept seems special or even foreign, instead of just being a natural occurrence in daily life. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had friends be disappointed with Valentine’s Day because their significant other’s ministrations did not meet their fantasy or expectations (or that they didn’t have a special someone to celebrate with). And then there’s the whole oversharing bit on social media, wherein my feed is populated with photos of bouquets and jewelry for the entire day.

Mother’s Day is an especially strange “holiday” because children should show their appreciation for their mother year-round, no? I don’t know about you, but I’d like more than one day a year. Perhaps the best part of greeting card holidays is that they often serve to enforce quality family time, in an age when people seem busier than ever. And really, the best part of my Mother’s Day was the fact that my husband did not work Mother’s Day for the first time (since I became a mother), and we spent the day hiking and enjoying each other’s company. That’s what it’s really all about, right?

So, my thoughts on greeting card holidays can pretty much be summed-up in one word: “meh”. Give me “just because” any day. How do you feel about Hallmark Holidays?

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Newsflash!

2016/05 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment

The past month has been an incredibly busy one for both myself and my family. Not only has my workload increased, but we’ve been busy making plans for the summer. Big plans.

We’re not planning a vacation, we’re planning a move! It’s all been hush-hush, waiting for pieces of the puzzle to fall into place, but I’m now able to share. My husband was offered a position in Baltimore, one that was too good to refuse. After years of working 12+ hour days, and often weekends, he’s been offered a position allowing him to work fewer hours, spend less time commuting and, most importantly, a quality of life.

While it was not an easy decision, my husband’s leaving his company of 10 years, being out of operations was a goal. For the past 4 years, I’ve been left alone with my son during Hurricane Sandy, severe storms, power outages and snow storms, as my husband set up camp at work to ensure that everything proceeded smoothly. Now, if a snow storm hits, my husband will be able to play in the snow with our son AND I won’t have to shovel the driveway by myself!

Fellow moms will understand this — the week my husband interviewed, I researched schools in the area where we’ll be moving and registered my little guy. Not only does my son need the stimulation and socialization provided by preschool, but I need those hours to get freelance work done. School spots fill quickly, as many of you well know, and he is currently on a waitlist for a 4-day program. I’m a little bummed because he was enrolled in a 5-day program here, and may now only be in a 3-day program, but I’ll figure out a way to make it work…so that I can work. Shoot, I may be back to 4am wakeups!

With schooling taken care of, housing was next. We spent several weeks researching areas to relocate, and looking at hundreds of homes for sale, so when the job offer finally came, we were ready! So ready, in fact, that my husband received his letter of offer on a Friday and I had arranged an appointment for him to look at one of the two homes we were considering on Saturday.

Friends, we are set to close on a beautiful home May 31…and I’ve never stepped foot inside! I was out of town conducting a writing workshop when my husband looked at the house. Having viewed around 40 photos of the home, I gave my husband the go ahead to submit an offer if he felt that it was the house for us. Here it is:

home-office

If all goes well, this will be OURS May 31! (My husband said that the perfect room for my office is the one where I’ve drawn the arrow – I can’t wait to check it out!)

Thank goodness for smartphones — I was able to sign legal documents while I was on the road and get the process started. When I got home I hit the ground running! I lost a day of work to scanning and submitting documents for our mortgage, and then dove into writing my first piece for an awesome new client — Net Nanny.

I’ve also been trying to unload all of my son’s baby items, which is not a task for the feint of heart. Honestly, local donation centers are getting some AMAZING clothing and gear donations! I’ve posted in online sale groups, Craigslist, and have been spending the last few days entering items into the system for my local consignment sale — Growing Express — which takes place this weekend.

This is basically my long-winded way of saying that the quiet around here and on my Facebook page is due to me being insanely busy planning, plotting and organizing, and will likely continue through our move. So, forgive me if you find typos and egregious errors in this post — I’m on deadline for a client and just wanted to publish an update…

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Wild Selections®: Eat Responsibly

2016/04 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment


You’re likely familiar with the #DrinkResponsibly campaign, but Wild Selections® wants you to #EatResponsibly as well. We spend time researching our produce, and time making sure we’re that we’re purchasing only humane and locally sourced meats, so why wouldn’t we do the same with our seafood?

Wild Selections, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, makes it incredibly easy to eat seafood responsibly.

 

Overfishing is a very real problem, with fish populations become scarcer each year, as fishermen plunder the seas to fulfill demand. My husband has worked in the food industry for 20+ years, and his ideals about food don’t stop at door. Treating our seafood as he would in any restaurant, my husband ensures that we’re following the Monterey Bay Aquarium seafood guidelines.

If you’re not familiar with Monterey Bay’s Seafood Watch, they rate seafood with 3 classifications for consumers: Best, Good and Avoid. If you’re at the store, simply input the fish you are planning to purchase to received detailed information about how that fish is caught, whether fishing for that fish affects other species (bycatch) and to what extent, in addition to information about how that fishery is impacting the surrounding sea habitat.

As parents, we need to be concerned about the food we feed our families, and more importantly, our children. Not only do we want to make the best choices for our table, but we need to be mindful of our children’s tables in the future. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, “As a result of prolonged and widespread overfishing, nearly a third of the world’s assessed fisheries are now in deep trouble—and that’s likely an underestimate, since many fisheries remain unstudied.”

wild_selections_infographic

I know, you’re busy. We’re all busier than ever, but Wild Selections®, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, makes it incredibly easy to eat seafood responsibly. Wild Selections® is making a difference, not only in the way we eat, but for marine habitats around the world.

  • Wild Selections® gives back to the oceans by donating 13 cents from every can sold to World Wildlife Fund marine conservation and fishery improvement projects
  • Wild Selections® is the only full line of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified sustainable seafood.  The blue MSC eco-label tells you the fish in your can comes from well managed fisheries and healthy fish stocks
  • Wild Selections® is premium quality, sustainably sourced fish that’s 100% traceable; visit WildSelections.com to learn where the fish in your can was caught
  • Wild Selections® fish is premium quality, delicious and all-natural
  • All Wild Selections® tuna is Non-GMO Project verified

Wild Selections, in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, makes it incredibly easy to eat seafood responsibly.

I know, I know, this is all well and good, but how does it taste, right? Delicious. I’ll be honest, I’ve only ever used canned tuna to make tuna salad, and not often at that. Wild Selections® canned tuna is premium chunk tuna (I actually had a difficult time getting it out of the can without breaking it up too much), perfect for a myriad of recipes.

Rigatoni-Tuna-Sun-Dried-Tomatoes

Eager to try something new, I scoured Pinterest and came across a recipe, from Pampered Chef, for Rigatoni with Tuna and Sun-Dried Tomatoes. This is a super-quick, easy to prepare, healthy meal! My family loved it, and it’s now gone onto my Pinterest board of recipes to keep. Usually a pasta-lover, my son was bypassing rigatoni to pluck chunks of tuna out of all of our bowls. Two [chubby toddler] thumbs up and responsibly sourced — it doesn’t get much better than that!

You can find out where Wild Selections® premium seafood products are being sold near you by using their convenient Store Locator. Get social! Visit Wild Selections® on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Well, what are you waiting for? Mangia!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Filed Under: all, Editorial, reviews|sponsored, sponsored

Swap.com: Online Consignment Review

2016/03 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment

From my first sale, I’ve been a children’s consignment sale junkie! So, when I discovered Swap.com (and no longer had to wait for semi-annual sales) I was immediately sold. Well, addicted may be the more appropriate term (I placed two significant orders within the first two weeks using the site!). I wanted to share Swap.com with all of you, in case you’ve not yet discovered the site.

Save 20% on top of swap.com savings & get FREE shipping with my coupon code!

Not only am I a fan of the recycling aspect of shopping on consignment, but the deals are hard to beat. I receive so many comments on my son’s clothing, and it’s hard to admit that I only spend around $100 per size (yes, I said size, not season). I have a go-to thrift outlet where I’m able to buy most of my son’s clothing (Gap, Polo, J. Crew, Children’s Place, etc.), and I tend to shop on their 50% off days, which means that I get Gap and J. Crew sweaters and cords for my little guy for around $2 a piece (not kidding).

3-outfits

 

The remainder of my son’s shopping I do through semi-annual consignment sales; this is where I go to find high-end shoes, sandals and inexpensive pajamas for my son (we’re still going through a pair of pjs a night). We tend to find a lot of great children’s books at these sales as well, something you can never have too much of! I keep a running list of items I need for my son in the months leading up to each sale, but it’s a little nerve-wracking to make sure that I find everything in each shopping trip [knowing that I’ll need to pay full retail price if I miss something].

Shoes are super expensive, especially when you consider how little time your kiddo is in them (my son wears a new size every 3 months or so these days). I was able to purchase top brands — pediped, See Kai Run, Robeez, Stride Rite — for a fraction of the cost new (think $5-$8 a pair). Score!

Imagine my delight when I discovered online consignment store, Swap.com, and no longer needed to trek 45 minutes to my favorite thrift outlet or wait for a semi-annual sale! I stocked up on my first Swap.com purchase, outfitting my little guy for spring with a few key pieces. I’ve put together a few outfits to show you what I found:
Headphones-$

 

 

I love this fun and funky outfit…and so does my son (who never really cares about his clothes). In fact, he insisted on wearing this outfit for the remainder of the day, and had a blast prancing around modeling it!

 

 

 

Seattle-$

 

I

picked up this outfit in preparation for summer camp — D usually runs around in sweatpant material shorts all summer (or in the buff), so I needed make sure that I had at least 5 different nice outfits (read: not bummy or for fishing salamanders out of ponds) for him to wear throughout the week.

This year is the first time my little guy is attending summer camp, which lasts 5 weeks and runs from 8:30am-3:30pm. The best part about the camp is that it is at a Friends Meeting School approximately two blocks from our house. I’m already beginning to plan all of the things I’ll be able to get done in that time!

 

TwoShirts-Headless-$

This is a fun spring pick and will likely be the outfit he wears for Easter. We channeled my husband’s 1980s preppy look with the layered shirt and popped collar (I’m bummed that I didn’t find a pink Polo shirt this year — that would have totally made the outfit!). The blue chambray pants are long, but the rolled cuffs give the outfit a less formal look — he’ll be wearing these light and breezy pants throughout the summer. The Vineyard Vines shirt my husband scored from the store clearance rack, not from Swap.com, but the clearance price was worthy of mentioning.

The items I did purchase from Swap.com — headphones tee, space needle tee, cargo shorts, chambray pants, polo shirt — I grabbed for a grand total of $19.50. It’s not often you can find quality children’s clothing, three complete outfits, for under $20.

Swap.com’s quality standards are high, and each item came individually packaged in ‘like new’ condition. I’ve been extremely pleased with my purchases so far (my second purchase was comprised of summer shorts and tees for the little guy), and actually send two large boxes to Swap.com for consignment. All of my maternity clothing and all of my little guy’s outgrown summer clothing and shoes are waiting to be photographed as I write this. It’s a heck of a lot easier to pack those boxes than it is to tag and enter 100+ pieces for semi-annual consignment sales! I’ll let you know how my consigning experience goes with them in a future update.

So, if you’re looking to grab brand-name clothing at clearance prices (they have women’s and maternity clothing as well), then you need to check out Swap.com!

Start shopping now — use my referral link to save 20% off of your first Swap.com purchase!

*This post contains a referral link. I purchased items from Swap.com to facilitate this review, all opinions expressed are my own.

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Filed Under: all, Editorial, ideas, Natural Living, Parenting, topics

Sitterberry App: Never Get Left in a Lurch

2016/03 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment

Fellow parents, how many times have you had to cancel plans because you couldn’t find a babysitter or your sitter canceled last minute? What if I told you that being left without a sitter was a thing of the past, as is scrambling to find cash to pay your sitter? Well, my friends, the Sitterberry app is helping parents and sitters everywhere!

The Sitterberry app allows parents to view their pool of babysitters' availability and easily book and pay sitters at the touch of a button.

My experience with sitters isn’t great. We live away from family and friends, so our network for finding good sitters is, well, nonexistent. I’m pretty laid back when it comes to parenting, but I have a difficult time trusting a complete stranger to watch my kiddo when I’m not around.

For about nine months before D. began nursery school, my solution to getting work done during the week was to hire a mother’s helper. I really just needed someone to occupy my little guy and make sure that he didn’t climb the bookshelves or draw on the walls while I worked in the next room. Using Care.com, I struggled to find anyone, and the mother’s helpers I did find and hire weren’t especially committed to the job. Womp-womp!

After speaking with Kathleen Malone, founder of the Sitterberry app, I discovered that I was going about things all wrong. Care.com findings show that it’s normal for families to go through 4-5 sitters per year. Here I was, throwing all of my eggs into one basket and then scrambling when my mother’s helpers left. My downfall? According to Malone, “it’s important to have 4-5 babystters on hand at any given time.”

What I was doing right, however, was using a service like Care.com to find and screen sitters, though word of mouth or recommendations from friends are close seconds. If you’re like me, living in an area with little to no connections, Malone suggests asking camp counselors, after school activity teachers or preschool teachers/teacher’s aids. In fact, the summer camp Malone’s children attend provides parents with a sheet of contact information for those camp counselors on staff who are also available for babysitting jobs. Genius!

So, how does the Sitterberry app fit into all of this? Once you have 4-5 sitters in your hopper, or 5+ if you’re really lucky good, it’s time to use Sitterberry so that you’re never left without a babysitter.

@Sitterberry helps parents book/pay babysitters at the touch of a button! Download FREE today!

Click To Tweet

The Sitterberry app allows parents to add their pool of sitters within the app, and in turn, their sitters use Sitterberry to load their calendars of availability. Each sitter’s information is stored, allowing parents to check availability and request them at the touch of a button. No more phone tag, no more phone chains; all of your sitters in one place!

The Sitterberry app allows parents to view their pool of babysitters' availability and easily book and pay sitters at the touch of a button.

It gets better, my friends. You can pay your babysitter through the Sitterberry app, using Venmo. I can’t tell you how many times I found myself having forgotten to get cash (I never keep cash on hand) and uncomfortably asking my sitter if it was okay if I wrote her a check. Many, many times. With the Sitterberry app, you simply navigate to your sitter’s contact information and select “Pay”. The app will carry over the rate, so you need only enter the number of hours and tip to calculate your payment — brilliant!

As for me, I’m working on gathering together a pool of trusted sitters so that I’m able to use Sitterberry. Anyone have any leads on a great sitter in the Philadelphia area?

You can discover more about Sitterberry at sitterberryapp.com. To find out the latest news and information from Sitterberry, connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.

Download Sitterberry for free on iTunes today, and breathe new life into your social game!

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Filed Under: all, blog series, Editorial, featured WAHMs, Parenting, topics

A Bevy of Panties

2016/02 By Lauren B. Stevens 7 Comments

Just 3 months ago, I wrote a post about panties. These weren’t any ordinary panties, they were period panties. No, not your battered, beaten and stained “time-of-the-month” granny panties, these were stylish, sexy and functional THINX period panties. I took it upon myself to find out if THINX period panties lived up to the hype, and dropped $75 on three pairs of panties so that I could be a guinea pig for you. You see, I know that you, my readers, love reusable menstrual products as much as I do, so I thought I’d throw a little something different in the mix — no cup, no mama cloth, just THINX.

In just 3 months, I've been able to donate $10k worth of pd. panties to organizations helping women. To celebrate, I'm giving 10 people the chance to win!

Anyway, I shared my embarrassing period HERstory, with all of my menstrual mishaps described in gory detail. At the end of the piece, after sharing some of my most embarrassing moments, I gave THINX panties a rave review and shared my referral link for readers to save $10 on their THINX purchase. The thing is, my friends, for every purchase made with my referral code, I’m sent a $10 gift card for THINX panties. Awesome, right?

Well, I’m here to say that much as you feel you can never have too many tampons/pads/cloth, you definitely can have too many pairs of period panties. I mean, how many pairs of period panties does a gal really need for her time of the month? Definitely not as many as I had credit for, to be certain.

Referral gift codes began rolling in, and after I sent period panties (dubbing myself the panty fairy) to every girlfriend of mine who was interested, I continued to accrue gift codes. With the accrual building, I contacted my local domestic violence agency, Laurel House, to see if they were interested and if they would accept them; I was given the go-ahead and began placing orders.

You will not believe how many referrals I began getting a day — sometimes up to 40 in a single day! It became clear to me that I needed to find another organization I could send panties to, and after some research, I found a local chapter of Days For Girls. Days For Girls, if you’re not already familiar, is an organization that provides quality, sustainable feminine hygiene products, allowing women in impoverished areas the opportunity to attend school, learn trades, become educated about reproductive health and so much more! Again, I reached out, and again, my panty offer was accepted.

In just 3 months, I've been able to donate $10k worth of pd. panties to organizations helping women. To celebrate, I'm giving 10 people the chance to win!

Here’s where it gets really crazy, my friends. As of last week, I have donated over $10,000 in period panties to Laurel House and Days For Girls — that’s a lot of panties, my friends! In just three months I’ve been able to give SO much to young ladies and women in need!




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Lauren B. Stevens is a former publishing rep-turned-writer, whose work can be found on ChildVantage, The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy and Care.com, among many other websites. When she's not chasing her precocious preschooler, Lauren pens hilarious and heartwarming stories about her life as a mother, ghostwrites blogs for businesses, and sometimes even finds the time to write a bit of creative non-fiction.
Look for Lauren's published essays in the books listed below:

i’m in these books!

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