Maple Leaf Mommy

I'm stepping down. I just can't keep up with this blogging thing. Don't get me wrong, I love blogging, but it's time intensive. I've received a ridiculously lucrative job offer, and because of the hours involved I don't believe I will have the time required to blog.

I've been wondering what to do with my site. I thought about putting it up for sale, but after much debate I've decided to GIVE IT AWAY.  So here it is, my final and BIGGEST Blog Giveaway Ever.


What you will win:

• Ownership of this blog, Maple Leaf Mommy, a PR 3 blog, with over 11,000 pageviews a month. 
• The domain name "www.mapleleafmommy.com", which has been prepaid for  the next five years.
• Ownership of associated social media accounts (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and G+).
• Ownership of the gmail account mapleleafmommy@gmail.com, as well as access to my archived email full of contact info for well over a hundred PR reps.

FINE PRINT:
Maple Leaf Mommy is a proudly Canadian site, so I ask that only Canadians enter to win ownership of the blog. The winner will be required to provide proof of Canadian citizenship by faxing me a copy of their birth certificate, or driver's license.

My image and personal name will be removed from the website. The winner does not have the right to use my name(Deanna T.), claim to be me, or write in my name. They will also not gain access to my children, or the right to use their images in any posts going forward. 

The winner will be responsible for producing their own content, starting April 2nd, 2012. At the winner's request I would be willing to provide paid guest posts on a bi-weekly or monthly basis.

I currently have product in my house that I have received with intent to review. The winner must agree that I will retain ownership of these items, but that they will produce timely written  reviews (and host giveaways as requested).

I may choose a winner based on merit, or my own personal whims, or if I can't make up my mind I may just draw randomly (bribes graciously accepted).

Remember last week when I posted my review of the new Baby Gourmet protein purées? Well now I'm back with an awesome giveaway....

One lucky Maple Leaf Mommy Reader is going to win the complete Baby Gourmet line up to test out for themselves. That's 15 pouches total; one of each from the original fruit & veggie blends, as well as one of each of the new protein purées. Perfect for trying out Baby Gourmet for the first time, or for restocking the pantry if you're already a fan, like I am.

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I'm a sucker for a good quote. I collect them and save them in notepad files, waiting for the perfect day to pull out the perfect quote. I used to post one every week or two, to my Facebook wall. Enter Pinterest, and now everyone is pinning these lovely quotes to their virtual pin boards. So I decided to try my hand at creating my own. And I discovered it's not as easy as it looks.

Source: plus.google.com via Deanna on Pinterest

Source: mapleleafmommy.com via Deanna on Pinterest

Source: mapleleafmommy.com via Deanna on Pinterest

Choosing a quote, that's the easy part, but finding an image, and laying out the words.... it's ridiculously time intensive. For one thing I'm a stickler about copyright issues, so I waste a ton of time trying to find just the right creative commons or public domain image to use. I'm also NOT a PaintShop wiz. I'm fiddling around and learning as I go along. So laying out the text (and deleting it, and laying it out again, and again) probably takes me longer then it should. Some turn out better then others.  Oft times I have to throw up my hands and simply stop because I've now spent an hour or two on making some silly quote "poster".

Source: mapleleafmommy.com via Deanna on Pinterest

Source: mapleleafmommy.com via Deanna on Pinterest

Source: mapleleafmommy.com via Deanna on Pinterest

Given the amount of time I've been wasting on these suckers, I figured I'd ask your opinion. I'm curious what you folks think - Good? Bad? Indifferent? Prefer real content? Terrible waste of space? Or nice weekly filler? Your thoughts?

Back in October I ran a cool giveaway for Green Works were you could win an eco-friendly professional home cleaning. The idea was that a professional cleaner would come in and use Green Works products to clean your house, and then leave the cleaners behind for you to continue using.  The reality was I was too timid to set up a professional house cleaning for myself. I felt like I would need to clean the place before I would want to let a cleaner in. Awkward. So instead I took the Green Works products they sent me and I used them myself, and they quickly became my new household standard.

Green Works products:
    ... are made with plant- and mineral-based cleaning ingredients.
    ... come from biodegradable ingredients that are naturally derived.
    ... are not tested on animals.
    ... are acknowledged by the EPA’s Design for the Environment program.
    ... don't stink.

Yeah, notice that last one. It's a biggy for me. As I've mentioned in the past, I absolutely hate the scent associated with cleaning.  Most household cleaners make me nauseous. Cleaning the toilet or the shower often makes me physically ill. I simply can not stand the smell. On the one hand, it's great because it means my husband steps up and does most of the dirty work. But the stench still lingers. It's something I dread.

I read on the Green Works website that their cleaners provide "extraordinary cleaning power without harsh chemical fumes or residue". Bang on. Sounds great. So let's test this out shall we: I tried their all purpose cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner, multi-surface cleaner, glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner and dish soap. Overall the biggest thing for me was I do not mind the smell of the Green Works products.  This was a super exciting discovery for me! I am seriously in love. I don't quite know how to express my excitement over finding cleaning products that don't make me retch.

My favourites of the bunch are the all purpose cleaner and the dilutable multi-surface cleaner. For the past few months I've been using a combination of the two on my hardwood and linoleum floors. My kids are rough on my dining room floors. They need constant cleaning. I've been using the Green Works multi-surface cleaner for complete floor washing, and the all purpose cleaner for spot cleaning. Green Works does the job, and it does the job well. It cleans up sticky spills and dried bits of who knows what left from last night's dinner. I love that it's gentle on my skin, and that I don't need to wear gloves while using it.  I've also been using the Green Works all purpose cleaner to wipe down my dining room table and my kitchen counters. I love that I don't' feel like I then need to "rinse" them off afterwards, to remove chemical residue.

I also like the toilet bowl cleaner, the bathroom cleaner and the glass cleaner. I have to admit I've got some mixed feeling here. These products do a good job of cleaning my bathroom, but since they don't stink or make me nauseous I've lost my one great excuse to make hubby clean the toilet and the tub.

My least favourite Green Works product is the dish soap. It works well, but I don't love the smell. It doesn't smell awful, I just don't love it. Now, I'm taking about the original Green Works dish soap. They have a new line-up out, with four different scented dish soaps. I'm particularly eager to try the Tangerine and the Lemon scents. I have a package enroute to me and I'll let you know what I think of the new dish soaps once I've given them a go.

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I wanted to give you guys a quick heads up for some of the fantastic promotions Green Works is running over the month of April.

For those of you out towards the Western half of Canada (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia) Green Works will be hosting a twitter contest with @LondonDrugs where customers can tweet their favourite Green Works Product to #WinWithGreenWorks for a chance to win 1 of 5 $500 London Drugs gift cards

Green Works is teaming up with Sobeys for a promotion where you will receive 200 Sobeys Bonus points when you buy 2 Green Works products at Sobeys.

Wal-mart will be offering an exclusive "special priced" 2-pack with Green Works All-Purpose Cleaner and Dish Soap. Wal-mart is also the exclusive distributor for All-Purpose Cleaner refills. Finally, they have educational demos scheduled for the weekend of April 14 and 15th, where you can learn more about the naturally-derived Green Works products in-store at participating Wal-mart locations.

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To enter first leave me a comment below telling me your thoughts on Green Works. Have you tried Green Works yet? Which product is your favourite?

Then fill out the Rafflecopter form below for your chance to win:

x-ray delta one

"When my kids become wild and unruly, I use a nice safe playpen. When they're finished, I climb out." ~ Erma Bombeck

My birthday was a few weeks back, and somehow I never quite managed to get some chocolate cake out of the bargain. That plus there's this chocolate cake mix and a can of chocolate icing kicking around in my kitchen. They've been haunting me for months now, ever since I won that Betty Crocker prize pack back in December. Holding out for three months is pretty good right? Time to cave in and have some chocolate goodness. While daydreaming about eating chocolate frosting with a spoon, I started thinking about other yummy chocolate things to eat with a spoon... like say Nutella. Hmm.. Nutella plus chocolate icing? I wonder... Yeah, I've got to try it.

So out came the can of chocolate icing. I scraped it out of the container and dumped it all into a mixing bowl. Then I added three or four generous tablespoons of Nutella, and gave it a really good mix. The end result was divine. From now on I want to always add Nutella to my frosting. I want to find more things to frost. I simply want to eat this. It is yum. When cold out of the fridge the consistency reminded me of my friend's homemade truffles. Again I say, yum.

At this point another brilliant idea hit me....Nutella in the frosting, why not Peanut Butter in the cake mix? So I made the Betty Crocker Chocolate Devil's Cake mix, following the directions on the back of the box but subbing in 1/2 cup peanut butter in place of 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Mixed it, poured it into the pan and with some trepidation I set it to bake. Would it turn out ok? Would the cake still be the right consistency?

Thirty-five minutes later I had my answer. One perfectly risen cake. It looked good, but how did it taste? Waiting for it to cool was a killer. And then I still had to ice that sucker. But eventually I arrived at this:


Now, like much of my attempts at baking, it isn't very pretty to look at. This is not ohh and awww serve it to company food. At least not based on looks. But taste? Oh my goodness it was SO GOOD. Just a hint of peanut butter in the cake, and the frosting was double fudge chocolatey delicious.

Ice cold, straight from the fridge, served with black coffee. Oh yum. Be still my chocolate loving heart.  I think my chocolate cake urge is satiated for now, but I'll be dreaming about this taste for a long time to come.

So yeah, definitely not part of that whole low sugar low cholesterol diet thing, but a darn tasty treat. Let me know if you give it a try.

About six years ago now we bought this house, our first house. I was so ridiculously excited. It was quite the upgrade from our little two bedroom apartment, and aside from having no more creepy "I have the keys and I just let myself in" landlady to contend with, and no more noisy  neighbours downstairs to worry about, I loved the fact that it was absolutely ours to do with as we pleased. Which was a good thing, since the kitchen was violently pink, and the front room and dining room was a light mint green, all with matching wallpaper and boarders out the wazoo.  No thank you. Not me. This had to go.

So we stripped wallpaper, we yanked out carpet, and we painted, and painted some more. We repainted pretty much every room in the house. My mom has many years experience with painting both within her own home and for other family members. She was a wonderful help, and I was truly lucky to have her on hand as I had zero experience with painting walls. My mom introduced me to things like paint trays, and rollers and edgers. At her insistence everything we bought was SHUR-LINE brand. 





Now, six years and two pregnancies later, I have crayon and scuff marks all over my darn walls. Ok, so I'm waiting until my girls get through this ever-so-aggravating colour on the walls phase. But pretty soon it's going to be time to repaint, and spruce this place up a bit. In the meantime SHUR-LINE has been busy developing products that are designed to make painting easier, and less messy. Overall, I love SHUR-LINE, and I definitely wouldn't plan on tackling repainting any room in my house without having these tools on hand.


Like their new Easy-Release Roller Cover Frame, which is designed for easier (and cleaner) removal of the used paint roller. I've played around with it, and it's pretty darn cool. Plus the grip is so cozy on this thing.


Then there's the Easy Reach Extendable Paint Pole, which slides open and shut so simply. Again the grip is really comfy, I also like that the pole is not too heavy. I didn't use anything like this when we pained out house. I think the extendable pole should make doing ceilings (and heck even the top parts of the walls) incredibly simple.

The Edge Like A Pro tool is my favourite of the bunch. This I did use last time, and I remember it fondly. The edger is an indispensable tool. SHUR-LINE claims that if you use it you don't even need to tape the edges... however, I'm such a klutz that I used painter's tape anyway, just to be double certain. I simply can't imagine doing around windows or along ceiling edges without this baby around.


Interested in doing a little home renovation of your own? SHUR-LINE painting tools are available at Home Depot, Home Hardware and Lowes stores across Canada. Or you can win some here...

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It's springtime and our yearly ant invasion is in full stream. Since we first moved into this house six years ago, each and every spring we get giant creepy carpenter ants invading our house. Each year I put out ant traps and bay leaves, and they disappear. Only to return again next year. I will admit, the first year it sort of freaked me out, but now I've gotten used to it.

My girls on the other hand... Well, in the past G-Girl was ok with bugs. I've worked hard at not even letting her know that being scared was an option. We'd sing the "I Like Bugs" song from Yo Gabba Gabba! and I would make a big show of escorting each bug she found safely out the front door.

This year however... Well, G-Girl is in Junior Kindergarten and at some point someone gave her the idea that girl's are supposed to be scared of bugs.  So all last week, whenever she'd discover an ant she's give a little screech and yell, "Oh no an ant!" She'd make a big show about not being able to enter a doorway, or walk down a hall because she thought she saw a bug. "Right there! Right there!" she'd yell. Screaming for me to come, "Help!Help!"  Now deep down, she's not really scared and she thinks this whole thing is a hoot.  However, her little two year old sister is terrified.  Shaking, quaking, in tears terrified.  The big sister she looks up to has told her that ants are scary and she's bought in, hook line and sinker.

This peeked one very long night last week. Baby-G woke screaming and I ran into her room to find her in tears. I eventually got her to calm down enough to tell me that the "ants were going to undo" her.  Apparently she'd woken up, noticed an ant climbing on her night light, and gone spastic. After that I think she had nightmares for the remainder of the night. I settled her over and over only to have her wake screaming again and again.

So needless to say I've spent the past few days trying to emphasize what small, harmless, gentle creatures ants are. (While laying out traps, and praying for them to just go away.)  I explained to G-Girl that she was scaring her little sister and that I absolutely wouldn't tolerate her pointing out ants to her sister, telling her they're scary or generally screaming or carrying on.

And I may have over done the whole thing, because now the girls are taking the damn critters on as pets.  Now my daughters biggest fear is that someone will step on and hurt one of her little friends. "Oh come here and climb on me little ant, I love the way you tickle!" she yells, as she chases one around the hallway floor with her fingers.  "Oh, look an ant! Right there! Right there!" they both screech with excitement, not fear, as they wander around the ground floor searching for more.  It's a bit much. Yesterday the girl's were sitting in the dining room eating lunch, I stepped out of the room for a moment and over heard the big one directing the little one to feed their ant friends.  I'm not just talking about intentionally dropping crumbs, my four year old was trying to hand feed hummus to an ant.  Later I also caught her saying, "Oh look, this one is sleeping. I'll just wave my pita at it and the scent will wake him up." You've got to be kidding me.

Our new pet. Let's call him Jim.       Image: Arvind Balaraman

G-Girl is of course now upset at the idea of ant traps. Even though I bought the kid and pet friendly kind, I explained to her that they were poison and most definitely not to be touched. "Oh, but wait mom... if they're poison won't they hurt our ant friends?"  I'm trying to explain that ants belong outside, and while I am happy to see them outside, when they are in our house I have to ask them to leave. Sigh. It's a fine line to walk.  I don't want my daughters to be terrified of bugs, but I also don't want to live inside an ant farm.

Any one else dealing with little ones and springtime bugs? Are your kids loving or loathing them?

I think you all know by now how much I love Baby Gourmet. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, let me tell you... This all-Canadian organic baby food is YUMMY Stuff.

As a mom I feel good about giving Baby Gourmet to my kids. It's all organic, with no fillers, no artificial ingredients, no added sugar or salt, and it tastes good enough that I want to eat it myself.  Even though my youngest has moved past the baby stage, we still buy Baby Gourmet on a regular basis. My girls will gobble it up, straight out of the pouch. They love it and consider it a treat (I've even had to break up the occasional tussle when one finishes hers before the other). We also often use the veggie & fruit purées  as dips, for small pieces of veggies or meats. And I say we because my girls aren't the only ones eating this stuff. I eat it too. It's fantastic.

So I was really excited to try out their new line of protein blends, and I was down right shocked when my kids didn't much care for them. The new line includes: Chicken Minestrone Soup, Hearty Vegetables with Turkey, Simply Sweet Potato, Sweet Potato Apple & Chicken, Vegetable Lentil Dahl, and Vegetable Beef & Barley.  We tried the Chicken Minestrone Soup first, I thought it was ok, but neither of my girls wanted to eat it. On to pouch number two, Vegetable Beef & Barley. Again, I liked it, but the girls weren't interested. What the heck?! This is Baby Gourmet. They love this stuff! The girls did enjoy the Sweet Potato and the Vegetable Lentil Dahl, but didn't end up liking any of the flavours with meat or poultry in them. I think it was a texture thing, as the ground meat is a bit grainy.  However, at ages 2 and 4, my daughters aren't really Baby Gourmet's target market. This stuff is baby food after all, and I'm certain that when they were still babes my girls would have munched it right down.


With just one pouch left to sample, the Sweet Potato Apple & Chicken, I came up with a great idea. I used it as the base for a rice pilaf, adding it in while I steamed the rice. The results were fabulous.  The kids devoured it, and I was pleased with myself for having snuck veggies and protein into a tasty side dish.

If your curious the recipe went something like this:
2 cups basmati rice
3 cups low sodium chicken stock
1 pouch of Sweet Potato Apple & Chicken Baby Gourmet
about half a cup of baby spinach torn into small pieces

I just tossed all of that into my rice steamer for 20 minutes, and out came delicious and flavourful rice. I'm definitely trying this again. I think this is my new healthy and nutritious substitution for flavoured "bag of rice", and I'm going to be picking up more of the Baby Gourmet protein purées specifically for turning into rice side dishes.

When Baby Gourmet first premiered you could only get it by ordering direct from their website, now I'm happy to say you can pick it up across Canada at major stores like Zehrs and Walmart. (Seriously, the first time my husband noticed it in our local grocery store and pointed it out to me I was so excited I squealed.) For those of you with wee babes in the household who are looking for a healthy, organic baby food (or for those of you with older kids looking for tasty snacks, and new ways to get sneaky with vegetables), check out Baby Gourmet, I think you'll love it as much we do.

I have been struggling for a long while with how to write this post. A little over two weeks ago now I got home from my appointment with the internalist and I was crushed. I was lost. I just wanted to go hid under a rock. I didn't want to tell anyone the prognosis she gave me. I waited for my husband to ask, and when he didn't ask I didn't bring it up. It took days for me to get around to taking to my family about it, and in the meantime I stewed over what to write here.

For those of you wondering what the heck I'm talking about, for over six months now I've been having these episodes where I feel nauseous, I feel dizzy, I feel like I'm going to faint, I'm too hot, or freezing cold, my feet swell up, my hand goes numb, it's hard to breath, there's not enough oxygen in the room, I have pains in my chest that radiate down into my arm, or it feels like a weight is pushing against my chest, I can't focus my eyes, I can't focus my brain, and I can't think straight or remember simple things. These fits are occasionally preceded or accompanied by blinding headaches.
 
After having CAT-scans, ultrasounds, and dozens of blood tests, my family doctor ruled out the idea that it might be a brain problem, or a thyroid issue. I "passed" my glucose tolerance test, so she decided it couldn't be diabetes. Thus she passed me on to a specialist, an internalist, and this doctor told me she felt it was most likely something to do with my heart.  So more tests, a stress test where they monitor your heart while you walk uphill on a treadmill, and an ultrasound of the heart and the major arteries leading to it.

All of this led me here to this day in late February where I am sitting in the internalist's office and she is telling me that I passed the tests and my heart is fine. Which is a relief... but then what the heck is going on with my body?  She tells me she thinks it may be a "generalized anxiety disorder". She asks if I've been under any stress? Do I feel stressed or depressed? No, not particularly. She emphasizes over and over that it's nothing I did to myself, and it's not my fault, and also that what I am experiencing are very real, very physical, symptoms. They are not just "in my head". She tells me that she'd like to give me a very mild pill to take once a day and that it should help. Take it for six weeks and then report back, if the pill isn't helping we'll think of something else.  If it is helping, you'll just take this pill for the rest of your life and that will be that. All I'm thinking is, "Ok, this is just something else to eliminate. I take this for six weeks, it doesn't work, and then she figures out what is really wrong with me."  I take the 'script and get it filled, and I'm surprised to discover it's for an antidepressant. Wait, she never said anything about antidepressants, I thought she was prescribing me a mild muscle relaxant or something.  I read through the side-effects and they are like a check-list of the symptoms I've already been experiencing. I don't want to take these pills. There has to be another option.

I dreaded telling my husband. Telling anyone. It's embarrassing. I feel like I should never have told anyone I was feeling sick in the first place. I dread the fact that someone is going to say, "See, it is all just in your head." But it's not. It's a real physical thing that I have no control over. It just happens.

I'm standing in the aisle at the grocery store trying to compare sodium content in two brands of salsa, and suddenly, I can't see straight, I can't read, I feel like I'm going to fall down, and I can't find the words to explain to my husband the difference between salsa and guacamole. I'm half asleep in the rocking chair breastfeeding the baby and suddenly I'm having pains in my chest and I feel like I can't breathe, like the air has been sucked out of the room. I'm sitting at McDonald's sharing a coffee break with my mom so I can write a post for Collective Bias, and I can't feel my left hand, it's numb and tingly, and I feel light headed and dizzy.  I'm in the kitchen peeling potatoes, and suddenly I'm so dizzy I feel like I have to sit down or I will fall over. I'm not stressed. I'm not worrying over anything. There is no obvious correlation, no trigger I can think of. On the contrary I can think of several times over the past few months when I've been stressed out, angry, in tears, fed up with my kids, with the world, and have felt physically just fine.

I have low blood pressure. I monitor my blood pressure with a cuff at home, as my doctor suggested. I have occasional dizzy spells brought on by low blood pressure.  It's worse at certain times of the month, for example when I'm on my period The doc says there's nothing to do about it, other then try and eat healthy and exercise regularly. Sitting for too much of the day will make the blood pool in your legs and could aggravate the low blood pressure. Exercise and walking may help with the low blood pressure, but probably not.

I am also having some sort of blood sugar issue. There's a history of diabetes in my father's side of the family and I had gestational diabetes during my first pregnancy. I think I'm probably pre-diabetic. When life gets in the way and I wait too long between meals I end up feeling lousy, it's the one thing that definitely does seem to trigger these episodes. However, because I passed my glucose tolerance test I'm not classified as diabetic, and I am not getting passed onto a specialist or a dietitian. I'm on my own on this one. The doctor made some vague general comments about avoiding sweets, not eating too many carbs, frequent small meals, that sort of thing.

My doctor said she felt these episodes are most likely one of three things: 1)stress, 2)the perfect storm, where my blood pressure and my blood sugar just both happen to be out of whack at the same time, or 3)sleep deprivation.

I am not willing to start taking anti-depressants for the rest of my life without exploring some other options.  I read up online online about anxiety attacks. Is that what this is? I'm not sure. I don't think so. The symptoms don't quite fit. But the doctors haven't found anything else, and it's got to be something. I can't deny that these episodes exist and are happening to me on a regular basis. I have to say that knowing my heart checks out ok is a huge relief. Before, I would feel these strange pains in my chest and worry that I might be having a stroke or a heart attack. It was a bit terrifying. Just knowing that I'm not about to drop dead makes it easier to get through. Finally, I need to admit that sleep deprivation really may be the key issue here. I've written a second article, all about the joys and dangers of sleep deprivation, which points out some of the serious health issues involved.

Over the past few weeks, as I've been mulling this over, several other folks have written about eerily similar issues. A few of my online friends have even been joking that having anxiety issues may be a prerequisite for being a blogger. So, on one level I'm writing this because I felt obliged to follow up and explain to you all what's going on. However I'm also writing this because I was inspired by some courageous and open ladies, and reading their words helped me.  Thank you.

Once upon a time I wrote on paper, quite a bit; journals, stories, to do lists, you name it. Like most people I find myself using a keyboard more often then a pen these days, and the pens at my place are now mainly used to jot down grocery lists, or address the occasional envelope.

Paper Mate did some research and discovered that now-a-days what folks really want are pens that are as smooth and effortless to use as a tablet stylus.

Paper Mate’s mission was simple: to develop an ink system that would provide effortless writing. They wanted a pen that started quickly without dragging, required minimal pressure from the hand, and delivered crisp, clean lines every time. But most of all, they wanted to bring back the joy to writing, so it felt right to call it InkJoy.

InkJoy addresses this need by combing a unique blend of ultra-low viscosity ink with optimized writing tips for delivering the ink. The result is effortless writing that is very different from ball pens, gels or rollers.

I was given a selection of the new InkJoy pens to try out and I was impressed with the bright colours, the lovely dark black, and the smooth blotchless ink flow. Dang, these pens make me want to write on paper. Also, they write so smoothly, and the bright colours are so pretty, they totally make me feel like a kid in highschool again, by which I mean they give me the strongest urge to doodle.


I tried pens from the Ink Joy 100 series, the 300 series and the 700 series. All three types wrote smoothly, effortlessly, never needing a scribble to get started. To me the only real difference was the outward appearance of the pens. The 100 series has caps to keep track of, while the 300 and 700 series are retractable.  I thought the 700 series was a rather beautiful looking pen, and the tapered shape and rubberized grip made it a delight to hold. I only wish the 700 series, which comes in the classic shades of black, blue or red, was available in all of the bright funky colours that the other lower numbers are.


Overall, these new pens are aptly named, as they are truly a joy to write (and doodle!) with. You can pick the new InkJoy pens up across Canada, wherever Paper Mate products are sold.


To enter simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below:

I got up this morning at 6:30 a.m. because my toddler was awake and crying. I went into her room and lifted her out of her crib, hugged her against my body and said "Shush now you should be sleeping." "Sunshine! No sleeping! Sunshine!" she cheerily babbled. Ugh. Sure enough sunlight was leaking in the corners of her bedroom blinds. I thought dark thoughts to myself about how much I hate that the sun is rising earlier these days, and gave into the fact that she wasn't going to go back to sleep. Hours later, when I finally had a chance to get on the computer I saw everyone posting reminders that tonight the clocks "spring ahead".

x-ray delta one

So I should be happy about that whole less morning light thing, right? But my mind is flooded with thoughts of impending doom and sleep deprivation. Oh, daylight savings time how I hate thee! Am I the only one feeling miserable about this? Are you other mom's out there in the same boat, or are your kids immune? How do you switch them over?

Hey, fellow bloggers... Want a FREE entry into a giant cross-blog giveaway?

What Wendi Wants is a new blog that will be launching this April. To help celebrate the launch and draw some attention to her new blog Wendi has organized one crazy-big giveaway.

So far there are over $500 in prizes up for grabs, including Skylanders Xbox 360 game, Pure Pearls Freshwater Pearl Bracelet, a Perplexus Game, and more.

You can have one free link (Facebook, Twitter or Google+) in exchange for promoting the giveaway (by creating a post like this one right here), and hosting the giveaway form on your blog when the event goes live on April 15th.

Hey, I figure why not! Oh, and I checked the giveaway will be open to US and Canada.

View all details and sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dDJHdERmclZEZU1YTHN5Q04ydFNMbVE6MQ#gid=0

Welcome to the Winter 2012 Biannual Blogathon!  It’s a full 72 hours of marathon-style blogging fun! The blogathon started at 8:00am EST today (March 9th) and will end at 8:00am EST on March 12th.

Though I certainly can’t blog for 72 hours straight, I do hope to get in 24 hours of blogging over the next three days, and I'm also hoping to participant in all of the Blogathon Bash Mini Challenges.

My To Do List looks something like this:

1. Write as many posts as I can, to schedule to post over the next few weeks. This is my main goal as I am ridiculously behind, and would need to write over thirty posts in order to be all caught up.

If I somehow complete #1, or in the far more likely event that my eyes start to cross and I need to work on something else as a break, I am going to:

• Back up my blog and blog comments, and then attempt to re-install IntenseDebate (because of compatibility issues with the newest version of Blogger, as mentioned in the IntenseDebate blog).
• Tweak my blog layout, specifically with the aim of adding in a spot for an ad banner and buttons.
• Use Tweeter Karma to weed through my Twitter follow list for inactive users.
• Work on my income taxes. I need to finish tallying up blog income, as well as figure out square footage of my "work" area so I can calculate the percentage of house expenses I can claim. Tally all expenses, etc. 

Bloggers interested in  joining the Blogathon can sign up here.  I should probably also mention that by signing up and participating you're entered for a chance to win some great prizes.

This post is part of the Biannual Blogathon Bash. It is one of several mini-challenges being posted as part of this event, and as such you can qualify for some pretty cool prizes by completing the challenge. Check out the Biannual Blogathon Bash blog for more information, and to sign up to take part (which you need to do to qualify for prizes).

First things first, I am not an accountant. I'm not going to get into the legality of it, or WHY you should be claiming your blogging income, which is a hotly debated topic. Suffice it to say I believe that you should claim your income, and I want to show you how to track it.

So why should you listen to this non-accountant mommy-blogger?  Well, in a past life I ran my own business selling vintage toys online, and, after a bit of training through the government Self-Employment-Assistance program, for seven years I kept my own books.  So I have a pretty good idea of what an accountant wants to see when you're handing your books over to them at the end of the year, (or what you will need for preparing your taxes on your own).

It's very simple to do your income taxes and claim your blogging income you need to know two things. You need to know how much you made and how much you spent. In this Mini Challenge I am going to cover how to track your blog earnings. Now ideally you should be doing this on a monthly basis as the money comes in, but in a pinch you can go back over your blog post by post and reconstruct what you got paid when.

It's really easy to track your income in Excel or another spreadsheet program. I am using Excel, so I am about to give step-by-step directions using that program. (I believe OpenOffice is pretty much identical). Don't panic if you've never used Excel before this is dead simple stuff. (And if you are already familiar with how to use a spreadsheet program, you can skip ahead to where it says, "Now you're ready to enter some info" in bold below.)

First, open up a new Excel file and in the top row in the first box type Date, in the next box type Description, in the third box type Amount, and in the fourth box type Details.  See the little lines between the columns? Mouse over the line between description and amount until your cursor turns into a little line with an arrow to either side of it, then click and hold the button down, now slide the column line to the right, and you end up with a nice wide column to enter your description in. You can do the same to make the Details column wider.


Now you need to tell Excel what you'd like to use each column for. Mouse over column A, at the very top where it says A, right click and from the menu that appears chose "format cells". Then choose date and whichever date format tickles your fancy. Do the same for column B, right click, chose "Format Cells" and then chose "Text".  Do the same for column C, this time choosing currency and making sure it is set to two decimal places.  And finally set column D to "Text".

Now you're ready to enter some info.
Okay, so as a review blogger I have two types of income coming in, cash payments from sponsored posts, advertising, etc, and product received.  There is some discussion as to whether or not an item you receive to review is payment in kind or not. Some experts say, "Yes, you definitely have to claim it", while others say, "No, you don't". Personally I've decided to err on the side of caution and claim my product received as income. 

So let's assume you want to work out your income for 2011, and haven't tracked a thing up until now. Head to your blog and open up your archives for January 2011 and take a look at your posts. Start with January 1st and work your way through each post you did that month. When you find a sponsored post, or a review post mark it down in the Excel spreadsheet like so.

Under date: put the date your received the item. I'm not too worried about the exact date it arrived in the mail, so instead I use the date I published the post.

Under description: put the company name and then next to that in brackets put whether you received (cash), (gift card) or (product).

Under amount: put the dollar amount received. For product I make my best guess at retail value. Sometimes PR reps will say we'd like to give you a package valued at "x".  Other times I look a product up online, for example on Amazon, to see what it retails for. For sponsored post amounts you may need to go back through emails, or use your PayPal account records to help you fill in the blanks.

Under details: put details like the exact product received, or the topic of a paid post.

So you end up with something that looks a bit like this:

Technically this should be a new file for each month, and then at the end of the year you tally them all together. However, as I have so few entries over the year I am keeping my blog income in one giant file and tallying it as I go along. I leave one blank line between months, just so it's a bit easier to read.

Don't forget to add other payments you might have received, such as cash paid for button or banner ads. (This is of course far easier if you track it as the money is coming in. If you're trying to reconstruct it after the fact then looking over your PayPal account history should help to job your memory. Or if you take payments by cheque, look through your checking account records, etc.)

You can easily sum up a total, and Excel does the math for you. Go to column C (Amount) and head to the very last/bottom entry. Left click on the box just below that last entry, hold down the mouse button and drag up so that all of the numbers you've entered are highlighted.

 
Now go to the tool bar at the top and click on AutoSum. It looks like this:
That adds together all of the numbers in column C and gives you a total. Now I can see how much I made for the first few months of 2011.
Oh yes, you can see I am totally getting rich off of this.

Now my challenge to you is to enter and tally your income for the first three months of 2011, or better yet the entire year. Not only is this something you need to do for taxes, but it's a great way to track trends, set financial blogging goals, and generally see how well you're doing. If you've been feeling intimidated, working through the first few months should show you just how easy this is to do. To qualify for the Mini Challenge bonus entry: Once you're done head back here and leave a comment telling me what you thought of the process, or something you learned such as a trend you noticed. Also feel free to post any questions and I'll help as I can.

For those of you who were curious as to what I ended up choosing with my NOVICA giftcard, here's the answer:




The artists' card and the wee card from Bali were thoughtful additions to the packaging, which ended up sparking a great conversation on geography with my four year old.

'Flying Dragon' Wood Relief Panel by Ketut Taram

So this lovely thing made it's way all the way to my place from Bali and I was so impressed with every step of the transaction. From the email updates I was sent to let me know when my item was packaged and shipped, to the obvious care with which it was packaged, to the little extras that it was packaged with.

The sculpture itself is gorgeous. The detail in person is fantastic. The wood has a lovely weight and solidness to it. I was also super impressed by the quality of the "hangers" on the back of the carving.

The elaborate corn husk (I think?) doll "bow" was a hotly contested item between the two girls and ended  up finding a new home tied to the side of the vanity mirror in my older daughter's room.

While my lovely new dragon sculpture found a home on the wall in our gaming basement.

Where I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the sculpture matches the exact shade of our wood trim. It looks like it was just made to hang there. How cool is that?

So I am now totally in love with NOVICA. I was already pretty infatuated after having browsed their site, but now, after having made my first purchase I am completely hooked. They emailed to let me know that having made my first purchase I am now a member of their passport club and qualify for shipping discounts and other goodies. I gave them my birthday info, and they sent me a happy birthday $15 off code to use! Combine this with the fact that they emailed me with tracking info every step of the way, packaged everything up so beautifully, and sent me a truly gorgeous item, and you can see why I am utterly head-over-heels for NOVICA... and off to do a little early birthday shopping.

Disclosure: I received a credit to spend at NOVICA. As always, the opinions stated are my own and were not influenced by the free item received.