Giveaways Ending Soon!

Hurry up and enter this giveaway ending very soon!

Shaklee's Basic H2 Earth Friendly Cleaner + 3 plastic water bottles ends on Sunday, 5/2 at 11:59 p.m. EST.

There are lots of ways to enter :) Good luck!

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Bye, Bye Pacifier!

I have such a love-hate relationship with pacifiers! I never really wanted my kids hooked on a paci and I just don't like seeing 2, 3 and 4 year olds walking around the mall or the playground with a paci stuck to their face. I was always afraid that would be one of my kids some day. But on the other hand, when they're babies and crying and just want something to suck on (and I just wanted a few minutes of quiet), how bad could the pacifier really be? As much as they look kind of silly with one in their mouth, they all appeared very happy. And ultimately, as long as they were happy, I was happy :)

But all good things must come to an end, right?

So our baby gave up the pacifier, or rather, Mommy & Daddy took them away Sunday during her nap and she hasn't seen one since. I thought for sure she would be hard to get off the paci - she seemed to ALWAYS want it. It became more of a toy for her than anything - she would do funny things with it with her tongue and spin it around. It was actually pretty funny to watch. And now that she finally has some teeth, she was starting to chew on it, so I figured it was a good time. She has pleasantly surprised me though and seems to be just as happy without it.....I guess all we needed was a little "out of sight, out of mind".

So I am going to combine this post with my Aloha Friday post - if you have kids, did they ever use a paci? If you don't have kids, would you let them use a paci if you had them?

For more Aloha Friday, stop by An Island Life.

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Another Happy Heiny's Giveaway - ends tonight!

Happy Heiny's just announced a giveaway on their facebook fan page again today for a Free One Size Diaper - Cow print - the winner will be announced today at 9pm CST.

Tonight, there are only 2 ways to enter:
1.Follow them on Twitter @happyheinys and tweet a unique tweet use #clothdiapers #giveaway @happyheinys.

2. Blog about this giveway & post a link to your blog on their fb fan page

Once you complete any or all of the above, head to their facebook fan page and put in your entries :)

Good luck!

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Theta Mom Thursday - Getting My Drivers License!

So I really had high hopes for some good, quality Time Out for Theta Mom in April. Unfortunately, we ended up being super busy (and my husband was out of town for 2 weeks for work). Before I knew it, the month was almost over!


So even though I may not have had time for some good, quality time-out time, I did manage to squeeze in an afternoon to get my driver's license. No, I am not kidding, my alone time without the kids this month was spent dealing with DMV - even though it wasn't exactly the best experience, I made the best of it...

My husband decided to work from home that day so I could go by myself (the thought of bringing all 3 of my kids to DMV just scared me - lol!). I bring them to lots of places by myself, but this was just one place I was hoping to avoid.


Since my husband was still trying to work while at home with the kids, I waited until the baby went down for a nap and headed out. DMV was about 25 minutes away from our house, so I was hoping to be back within 2 hours. Before leaving, I doubled checked their website and made sure I had everything and anything that they could possibly ask for - my FL drivers license, my social security card, my birth certificate, my passport, my marriage certificate (because my birth certificate and passport are in my maiden name), proof of residence, and my check book. What else could they really need?


So I arrive at DMV and head to the first line (not too bad - only 5 people ahead of me). When it's finally my turn, I receive the paperwork to fill out to do an out of state license transfer. He took a quick look at what I brought and said I was all set. I fill it out, get in a second line to receive a ticket. After I got my ticket, I head to line #3. I look at the clock - only 20 minutes have passed so far - I'm thinking things are going well....


That is until it's my turn again. I hand over all my paperwork and I wait patiently as the woman takes her time going through everything. She then hands everything back to me and informs me that I should come back another day after I request and receive an official copy of my marriage certificate. Huh????? Yes, that marriage certificate that I have been carrying around for 6 1/2 years now that was used as validation to change my name on my drivers license in Massachusetts, change my name on my social security card, and to receive a drivers license in Florida was not good enough for the State of Connecticut! It turns out, the one I have was issued by the church we got married in (and the church has a copy of the marriage certificate from that town). The state of CT only recognizes the official certificates issued by the city/town. Ugh! I tried to talk the woman (and her supervisor) into letting me just get my license with what I had, but there was no swaying them.


So I walked out, got in my car, called the town hall where we were married, ensured they had a copy, and drove the 45 minutes to pick it up (while passing my house). I went in, paid the $20 for a copy, and drove another 45 minutes back to DMV (passing my house yet again). I walked back in, waited in that line #3 again, and this time was allowed to advance to line #4 for a vision test. After an hour in DMV, I walked out with a new drivers license, and then drove 25 minutes back to my house.


Sounds bad, huh? Actually though, I spent almost 2 hours in my car all by myself!!! I had the windows down (no kids complaining about too much wind), had the music I enjoyed playing very loudly, and never once had to answer "are we there yet?". That was one of the most peaceful 2 hours I had all month!

Stop by Theta Mom to find out how Heather and some other mom's spent their "Time-Out for Theta Mom Thursday" in April.

Happy Heiny's Giveaway - ends tonight!

Happy Heiny's just announced a giveaway on their facebook fan page for a Free One Size Pocket Diaper - Peace Bear - the winner will be announced today at 7pm CST.

There are 4 ways to enter:

1.Follow them on Twitter @happyheinys

2.Already follow? Tweet how much you love @happyheinys

3.Join their newsletter at the top of happyheinys.com

4.Post this giveaway on your blog.

Once you complete any or all of the above, head to their facebook fan page and put in your entries :)

Good luck!

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Wordless Wednesday - Zebras

This used to be one of my favorite parts of the drive-through safari we used to live near! The zebras would come right up to your car or stand in the middle of the road forever....

Here is my daughter admiring them...

For more Wordless Wednesday, head here.

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Free Light Bulbs!

Have you made the switch yet to energy efficient light bulbs in your house? Unfortunately, when we moved into this house in December, none of the light bulbs currently here were the energy efficient ones (in our old house, that was all we used!). I didn't want to have to go out and replace all of our light bulbs at once, so we've just been slowly replacing them all as each of the traditional light bulbs dies out.

If you are like me and need some help replacing your old light bulbs with energy efficient ones, head over to Energy Efficient Now to sign up for 2 free energy efficient light bulbs!

Thanks to Green Momma for the heads up!

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Tuesday Tag-Along at Twee Poppets

Twee Poppets is starting a new blog hop for Tuesdays - Tuesday Tag-Along - and today is the first day! I thought it would be fun to join in and meet some other blogs out there :)

So if you are interestes in joining as well, here are the rules:

• Create a new Tuesday Tag-Along blog post.
• Add your blog name and the URL of your TTA post to the MckLinky at Twee Poppets.
• Follow Twee Poppets, the hostess blog listed in the first slot. Leave a comment saying you've followed, and Twee Poppets will follow you back!
• Follow teh blogs in the 3 slots before you (e.g., if you're number 20, follow numbers 19, 18, and 17). This is not mandatory, but it will help ensure that everyone who signs up gets a few new followers!
• Follow as many other blogs as you want. The more you follow, the more that will follow you back! Be sure to tell them that you're following from Tuesday Tag-Along! You may also want to leave a link to your blog so they can return your follow more easily.
• When you get a new follower through Tuesday Tag-Along, be sure to follow them back! It's just common courtesy. :)

The weekly Tuesday Tag-Along post and MckLinky will be posted every Monday night at 8:59pm Pacific Standard Time (that's 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time), and the MckLinky will be open to add your blog until 11:59pm Tuesday night. You then have all week long to visit blogs and return follows!

There is a new list every week. The link you enter one week will not carry over to the next week's MckLinky. Make sure to link up again each week to join in the fun!


Tuesday Tag-Along Blog Hopper of the Week:
Each week, one blog will be chosen randomly from all the links, and that lucky blog will be placed in the desirable second slot for the following week's MckLinky! Who will be the first TTA Blog Hopper of the Week? It could be you!

Are you interested in joining the fun? Head over to Twee Poppets!

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Postless In Seattle, But At Least a Blog Makeover....

So I haven't posted since Thursday, but it wasn't for lack of effort with my blog (or my etsy shop - I have a new product that I've added - reusable snack bags - my kids LOVE them, I'm sure yours will too!)....

If you didn't notice (or this is your first time visiting) - I've had a (very long time coming) blog makeover this weekend!! I am very excited to say that I did it all myself (of course with some help from some good tutorials out there). I took advantage of blogger's feature for multiple pages which enabled me to cut down on the clutter on my front page (I hope so!). But the header is new and I FINALLY have my own blog button too - yay!! So if you enjoy stopping by, why don't you grab my button (and let me know you did - so I know all my hard work has paid off...)

So if you are up for working on a makeover yourself, here are some tutorials I found very helpful:

Mommyhood Exposed - I used a little bit of this tutorial for help with my banner. I used paint.net though to play around with the photo of my kids (I love paint.net because it's free to download to use)

Musings of a Housewife - I used her tutorial to help with the creation of my button

A Heart for Home - a great tutorial on adding your blog button with html code to sidebar

Well, now that I've gotten a lot of housekeeping done, I should be back to posting :)

What do you think though, do you like the new look?

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Fluff Talk Thursday: Earth Day & Cloth Diapers & A Giveaway!

Beth at Happily Domestic has a special Earth Day edition of Fluff Talk Thursdays going on today! Over there she has a great (and VERY informative) post about the benefits of making the switch from disposables to cloth diapers! We made the switch in our house back in 2008 with my daughter who was then about 7 months old. I used cloth on her until she potty trained this past winter. I love cloth diapers, but was happy to see her out of them! And that is only because now her little sister has an even bigger stash -haha! So yes, I will still be diapering for at least another year!

Here are the benefits that I have noticed since making the switch 2 years ago:

• We have saved a ton of money with not having to buy disposables all the time.
• The amount of times my daughter's have gotten diaper rashes has significantly decreased
• The amount of trash that our house generates on a weekly basis has noticably decreased
• My girls love top pick out what pretty diaper they want to be changed into (not only do I love the cute patterns, but they do too!)
• As my kids have gotten older, it is much harder for them to remove a cloth diaper themselves compared to a disposable
• Changing the newer cloth diapers (pockets, AIO, fitteds) are just like changing a disposable.
• My diaper pail rarely stinks (and when it does, I use some Rockin Green pail freshner that works wonders) - with disposables, I just had to deal with stink until the garbage man came!
• The money I spent on my cloth diapers for my older daughter was well spent - because the diapers are now being used on my younger daughter!
• All the newborn diapers I bought when my younger daughter was born, I was able to resell on DiaperSwappers and made most of my money back!!!!!! You definitely can't say that about disposables!

Are you wondering if I've noticed any downfalls to making the switch? To be quite honest, I have 2: (1) when I had 2 girls in diapers at the same time (and the baby was a newborn), I had more laundry - and I'm not a big fan of laundry! But, once the baby was older and wasn't going through 10-12 diapers a day, there wasn't a lot of extra laundry to do. And now that I only have 1 in diapers, it feels like nothing and (2) there are so many different colors & prints out there that it becomes addicting!!! Before you know it, you can end up with more diapers than you really need....

So, have you made the switch yet? Are you intrigued, but don't want to spend the money yet? Or are you interested in adding another diaper to your currrent stash? Then head over to Happily Domestic because she is having a 1 day giveaway in celebration of Earth Day - a Smartipants in your choice of color! This diaper is awesome - I only have 1, but it is one of my favorites!!!

Happy Earth Day!

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Domestically Green Earth Day Giveaway Winners!

Thanks for everyone who entered the first giveaway ever for my Etsy shop: Domestically Green!

There were a total of 51 entries. If you remember, I am picking 2 winners, the 1st winner receives 2 wool dryer balls from Domestically Green and the 2nd winner wins a set of 3 reusable swiffer pads.

Random.org picked #35 for the first winner (set of wool dryer balls) - Laura!

Random.org picked #10 for the 2nd winner (set of reusable swiffer pads) - Maryanne!

Congrats to our winners! I am sending you girls emails now and you have 48 hours to get back to me with your address and what colors you would like, or will I have to pick a new winner.

Thanks and Happy Earth Day everyone!

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Take Your Trash When You Leave!

Dear Realtor:

When you show up to my home to host an open house, please remember that this is my home. Also remember that I do not own this house - I am currently renting as I just moved to the area. I did not hire you and quiet frankly, I do not care if the house sells or not. I am a very nice person though and I do know what is involved in selling a house. But, this is my family's home right now, and I would appreciate you showing us a little respect.

When you spill water on my kitchen floor and slip (I know you don't know, but I did see you and I did hear your partner ask if everything is okay), do not say nothing and then leave the water on the floor without telling me. If you slipped, then there is a good chance that I could have or 1 of my 3 kids could have.

When you decide to move my son's toys to "stage your photo" and you break the dinosaur tower that he and his father worked on together, please have the decency to tell me. There is nothing worse than your son going downstairs to play with his toy and discovering everything has been moved on him and his favorite thing to play with currently has fallen apart.

And was it really necessary to fluff the pillows on my bed? Those are the pillows I use to sleep with at night - there is no need for you to touch them. I made our bed and I thought it looked rather nice.

Do you pay attention to anything that you move? These "things" you are moving are ours. They are not just inventory at a shop for you to play around with to make a display look perfect. I have my photos on my mantle in an order that I like. Who are you to move them around and put in a different order? Seriously? And when you decide to take my husband's book of his nightstand, please try to replace it with the book he is currently reading (with the bookmark in place). Again, if it is really necessary to move something out of the way, please, please, please put it back where you found it.

This house is set up to allow my older 2 children to be very independent (how do you think I stay sane on a daily basis with a 4 year old, 2 1/2 year old and 1 year old?) By moving the stool in the bathroom (because you know, elmo stools are usually deal breakers when looking to buy a house) it messes up the good set-up I have for my kids. When my daughter cannot find her stool to go potty, accidents happen. When I mention this to you, the response "well didn't she just find it hidden next to the toilet?" is not okay. No, my 2 1/2 year old, when she is jumping up and down in a panic to get on the potty on time does not have the ability yet to take a step back and look for her stool. That is not a realistic expectation of a 2 1/2 year old. I thought you had kids? So do I need to remind you again, please, please, please put things back where you found them.

And when I work my butt off this morning to get myself and my 3 kids out of the house by 10 am (with leaving the house very clean and myself showered!), please take your trash when you leave. There is nothing cool about coming home and finding 5 dead plants and an old rug sitting in my garage! If there was trash in the next door apartment that you wanted hidden, please do not hide in my garage and then leave for me to deal with. Your excuse that you couldn't get the apartment garage to open is pretty lame - next time try using your keys to the front door....

I believe I have been very accomodating and trying to work with you so you can do your job. The house is always clean when you come by. I work my schedule around (or rather go completely off my normal schedule) when you need to show the house. So please, show my family and I the same respect and remember that this is our home. I would never go to your home and leave a bunch of trash.

Domestically Green Earth Day Celebration Giveaway Ending Today!

My giveaway from my Etsy shop: Domestically Green ends today!!! There will be 2 winners - one for a set of wool dryer balls and the other for a set of reusable swiffer pads. Winners will be announced tomorrow in honor of Earth Day! These are some great products to help you reduce waste :) Head here to enter!

Good Luck!

Wordless Wednesday - Crack & Chocolate

Someone wasn't very patient while Mommy was making lunch....

I'm convinced dark chocolate is like crack - one taste and she is already addicted! Whenever the refrigerator door is openned, she now makes a beeline for that bunny!!!!!

For more Wordless Wednesday, head over here.

Can I Get Some Caffeine Please?

How do I start my day each morning? Well, here is how it has been today:

5:45 - hubby wakes me up to give me a kiss goodbye - he's off to work

6:00 - my 2 year old wakes up because she needs to use the potty - she then joins me in bed because I told her it was way too early to wake up yet

6:30 - my 1 year old wakes up - I get her from her crib and bring her to bed too - now the girls can play together while I slowly wake up

6:45 - I get breakfast ready for the girls and put water on for my tea

7:00 - I make a cup of tea and a bowl of cereal for myself

7:30 - I realize my cup of tea is still on the counter without a sip missing :(

7:31 - my son wakes up and needs breakfast (the tea continues to sit....)

7:45 - I put on a load of laundry, fold the clothes in the dryer from last night, change the baby's diaper, etc....

8:30 - I see my tea still sitting there - cold of course - I pop it in the microwave for 25 seconds and then put the oven on to make some bread crumbs - then I head to the living room to help the kids with their puzzles (they've been asking for about 10 minutes now for help).

8:45 - the buzzer goes off in the kitchen for my bread in the oven - take the bread out and look around for my tea - oh yeah - still in the microwave so I heat it up again

8:46 - my phone rings - it's my husband checking in - all the kids take turns getting on the phone to say good morning

9:00 - Hmm - where is my tea? Oh yeah, STILL in the microwave - but now cold AGAIN....

9:10 - FINALLY - sitting here at my computer drinking my tea

So three hours after I woke up and 2 hours after I made my cup of tea, I am finally able to enjoy it (and boy do I need it!). Don't you just love my mug? My sister bought it for me years ago on one of her trips to Disney - it's the perfect Monday morning mug!

Earth Friendly Shaklee's Basic H2 Review & Giveaway

Right before my computer crashed a few months ago, I was very excited to receive an email from Joanne, an independent distributor of Shaklee, asking me if I would be interested in trying a sample of Shaklee's Basic H2. I had never heard of Shaklee or Basic H2 before, so immediately went over to check out Joanne's website and blog. Shaklee has such a large assortment of natural, safe and eco-friendly products - from cleaning products to beauty products to nutrition products. I was amazed at how much they had to offer! Of course, once I saw this, I was intrigued and definitely want to try a sample...

When I received my free sample in the mail, I was so excited that the next day was going to be a rainy, dreary day because my house was a disaster and I really needed to get some cleaning done. We have had such nice spring weather the past few weeks, that I kept putting off my house so the kids and I could play outside all day. After being couped up in the house all winter, we needed the fresh air! But now, my house really, really, really, needed to be cleaned!



Shaklee's Basic H2 comes in a superconcentrated formula that needs to be mixed with warm water in a spray bottle. I was amazed how little I needed to use to mix up some cleaner. I made up 2 spray bottles - 1 bottle of all purpuse cleaner (which used 16 oz. of water with 1/4 tsp. of Basic H2) and 1 bottle of glass cleaner (which used 16 oz. of water with 2 drops of Basic H2). So in the end I ended up with 2 spray bottles worth of cleaner using only 0.07 oz. of Basic H2! I will admit, I was a little skeptical that the cleaner would really work - I felt like my spray bottles were mostly water. But.....

I ended up being pleasantly surprised!!! Both the glass cleaner and the all-purpose cleaner worked AWESOME! I felt like my house was so dirty, so I basically cleaned everything - counters, sinks, appliances, tables, chairs, shelves, walls, and windows (yes, I cleaned the inside of all my windows too!). Here is what I liked about Basic H2:

• The glass cleaner left no streaks on my windows or mirrors!



• I knew the glass cleaner worked because my rags were basically black from some of my windows (the ones I never cleaned when we moved into this house in December that I just said I would wait until the spring - if I had known they were that dirty, I would have taken care of it a few months ago!)



• There was no strong scent (or any smell at all) - I do not cleaners with any type of strong smell. I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I actually preferred it over my usual vinegar/water mixture because of the "no scent".



• There was no residue left after I wiped up the cleaner on any types of surfaces - plastic, wood, vinyl, ceramic, etc.



• The all-purpose cleaner was effective at cleaning up the grease splatters around my stove.



• I love that it is safe for my family and the environment - it is natural, nontoxic, has biodegradable surfactants, and no phosphates

This is a product that I would definitely recommend to others! I know you would love to try some yourself! With Earth Day right around the corner - now is the perfect time to add some environmentally friendly products to your house! Of if you are already use eco-friendly products, I would urge you to try out Shaklee's Basic H2. With their superconcentrated formula, I think their products are much easier on your wallet than many of the products available at the grocery store today. So how do you get yourself a bottle of Shaklee's Basic H2?

Buy It: You can purchase Shaklee's Basic H2 or any other of their other safe, environmentally friendly products online. For only $12.15, you can purchase a 16 oz. bottle of Basic H2 (which can then make up to 48 GALLONS of cleaner for your home!). Joanne has been kind enough to offer $10 off your first purchase of at least $50. Just make sure you let her know when you order that you heard about her products from Jackie at 3 Little Ones.

Win It: Joanne has also been so gracious to offer to one lucky reader their own 16 oz. bottle of Basic H2 Organic Super Cleaning Concentrate and a set of Shaklee's 3 pack spray bottles with labels!

How to Enter:


Mandatory Entry: You must visit Joanne's Shaklee shop and let me know of one other product you would love to try!

Additional Entries (you must complete the mandatory entry first or your additional entries will be void):
1) Subscribe to Joanne's blog - Beyond Prescriptions(2 entries)
2) Follow 3 Little Ones blog publicly (1 entry)

3) Subscribe to 3 Little Ones via email (2 entries)
4) Follow @3littleonesblog on twitter (1 entry)
5) Tweet this giveaway with the following message "Win Shaklee Basic H2 Cleaner #giveaway #green #win #eco @3littleonesblog http://bit.ly/9wAHCZ ends 5/2" (1 entry per tweet per day)
6) Blog about this giveaway (5 additional entries)
7) Enter another one of my giveaways (1 entry per giveaway) - my current giveaways are listed on the top right sidebar

Giveaway Rules: Contest will begin on April 18th and end on May 2nd at 11:59 pm EST and is open to U.S. and Canada. Any entries recieved after 11:59 pm will be deleted. One winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using Random.org. The winner will be announced here at 3 Little Ones on May 3rd and also sent an email. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be randomly selected. Enter as many times as you want :) Good Luck!!!

I'm Not Here...

I'm over at 24 Hour Days today!

I was recently blog hopping and found such a great blog - 24 Hour Days - Bethany is a new mom who is embarking on the switch to cloth diapers (yay!!!)! Bethany is so sweet - go on over to her blog today and check out her interview of me.

Twee Poppets Review & Giveway of Sweet as Pie Creations Etsy Shop!

While blog hopping yesterday, I found a cool blog that I never visited before - Twee Poppets. It is a review & giveaway that currently has 2 very cool giveaways going on right now. The one that I stuck around to check out (and also enter) was for a $10 gift certificate to Sweet as Pie Creations (an etsy store that sells hair bows for little girls). This shop has such a large selection of the cutest bows - definitely ones that I would love to use in my 2 little girls' hair :)

If you are interested in entering, head over to Twee Poppets. The giveaway ends on April 24th at 11:59 p.m.

Aloha Friday - 4/16

From Kailani at An Island Life:

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link HERE. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

So last night, our 2 1/2 year old daughter woke up in the middle of the night to do pee-pee. After she was done, she came into our room and asked our husband if she could sleep in our bed. Surprisingly, my husband said "sure". I wasn't expecting that as we have always been very firm with our kids that we all have our own beds to sleep in. So this was the first time that we ever had one of our kids sleeping between us in the middle of the night - and it was absolute torture!!!!! Our daughter moved from my pillow to his, kicked us, pushed us, and basically took over the entire queen bed for herself! So needless to say, we are both very tired today (and my husband has no recollection of ever telling our daughter it was okay to come in our bed last night). We will definitely be going back to our "no kids allowed in our bed at night" policy.

So my question for you is, do your kids sleep in your bed with you at night or do they sleep in their own beds?

Have a happy Friday and a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday - 4/14

Spring has arrived!!!!!

For more Wordless Wednesday, head over here.

Domestically Green Earth Day Giveaway

Awhile ago I posted how I finally openned up my Etsy shop - Domestically Green. My Etsy shop carries 2 products that are great to use to help our environment - wool dryer balls and reusable swiffer duster pads. They have been great additions to our house to help us be a little "greener". Since Earth Day is coming up, I thought it was appropriate to share with my readers these products (and also give some away!!!). I always love the month of April because there seems to be so many more articles out there on how go green. And every year I seem to find new things to do to help us be more environmentally friendly. So for those of you that are looking for something to help your family be more green, here are two products you can consider:

Wool dryer balls are a very eco-friendly alternative to dryer sheets. You can use as few as 2 or up to 8 to help reduce static and reduce drying time. They are 100% wool and contain no chemicals or hazardous materials. They are much safer than plastic balls you can buy from the store as they do not contain PVC. They are much better than dryer sheets because it cuts down on excess garbage in our landfills and they are cheaper in the long run. The original ones that I made a few years ago are still working like new! For those of you that use cloth diapers, these are great to use when you have to dry your diapers in the dryer. I've noticed that they definitely speed up the drying time (especially with prefolds and AIO's).

I wrote a post a long time ago about the reusable swiffer pads that we started using in our house a few years ago. Since then I started to make them and sell at Domestically Green. These have fleece on 1 side and flannel on the other. They work great at picking up dust, hair, lint, garbage, etc. off the floors (think of a baby crawling across the floor wearing fleece pants - they collect everything on their knees!!). With both sides of these pads being effective at cleaning floors, it is easy to just flip over to use the other side when one gets dirty! So not only do these cut down on waste in our landfills, they also cut down on your laundry as you can use both sides before you need to toss in the hamper!

You can purchase these at my Etsy shop: Domestically Green. A set of 2 wool dryer balls can be purchased for $10.50 (although for the rest of April, they are on sale for $9.50) and a set of 3 reusable swiffer pads can be purchased for $10.

Now for the giveaway!!!! In honor of Earth Day, I thought it would fun to giveaway a set of wool dryer balls to one reader and a set of swiffer pads to another one of my readers! In order to be entered, you must visit Domestically Green and tell me which item you would like to win if you won (color of dryer ball or print of swiffer pad).

Additional optional entries (these will only count if you have completed the mandatory entry first)

1) Heart Domestically Green in Etsy (1 entry)

2) Follow 3 Little Ones blog publicly (1 entry)

3) Follow @3littleonesblog on twitter (1 entry)

4) Follow @domesticgreen on twitter (1 entry)

5) Tweet this giveaway with the following message "Win green products @domesticallygreen @3littleonesblog http://3little1.blogspot.com/2010/04/domestically-green-earth-day-giveaway.html " (1 entry per tweet per day)

6) If you are a facebook fan of Domestically Green (1 entry)

7) Blog about this giveaway (5 additional entries)

8) Share one way your family has gone green (1 entry only)

9) Enter another one of my giveaways (1 entry per giveaway) - my current giveaways are listed on the top right sidebar

Giveaway Rules: Contest will begin on April 13th and end on April 21st at midnight EST. Any entries recieved after midnight will be deleted. Two winners with a valid entry will be selected at random using Random.org. The 1st winner selected will win the set of wool dryer balls. The 2nd winner selected will win the swiffer duster pads. The winners will be announced here at 3 Little Ones on Earth Day and also sent an email. Winners will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be randomly selected. Enter as many times as you want :) Good Luck!!!

My Blog is Carbon Neutral - Is Yours?

If you have been reading my blog for any time now, you know that I am always looking for ways to be more green. I always tend to focus on ways to be more green around my house, but never really thought about what kind of environmental impact my blog had. So when I saw this over at Adventures in Mommyville, I had to check it out...

KaufDA is a German based company who has dedicated themselves to helping the environment. They have launched a new campaign called "Make it Green!" Their goal with this campaign is to reduce the carbon footprint by raising awareness of the severe environmental damage caused by carbon emissions.One of their activities is to raise awareness of the carbon emissions resulting from the use of the internet - specifically of blogs. A blog with 15,000 visits a month has a yearly carbon dioxide emissions of 8lb. To neutralize these emissions they have created "My blog is carbon neutral" buttons so bloggers can demonstrate that they care about the environment and the carbon footprint of their blogs.

So what can we do to help? For every blog that supports their organization, and adds this button to their blog, they plant a tree. This reduces the carbon footprint of our blogs. KaufDA is working in cooperation with the Arbor Day Foundation in Plumas National Forest in Northern California for their project to neutralize the carbon footprint of blogs.

If you would like to join in go here for more information.

Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right Review

Red Light, Green Light, Eat Right is a book written by Joanna Dolgoff, MD to help parents get their childen on the right track with eating healthier. With such a high percentage of overweight and obese children today, this book can be used to help parents teach their children how to eat healthier foods and also how to teach them better portion control.

From Dr. Dolgoff's website, "Joanna Dolgoff, MD is a pediatrician and child obesity expert. Her child weight loss program boasts over a 90% success rate and has been featured on WABC News, WNBC News, Fox 5 Morning Show, My9 News, and WPIX News. Dr. Dolgoff has also filmed pieces with The Today Show, NightLine, and Extra. She is a contributing blogger to the Huffington Post. Children from 45 different states are losing weight with her online weight loss program (http://www.drdolgoff.com/). Dr. Dolgoff has offices in Manhattan, NY and Roslyn Heights, NY."

I was excited to have the opportunity (through the Product Review Place) to read this book and review it for my blog. The statistics on childhood obesity definitely concern me. As a mother of three little kids, I work very hard everyday to make sure my children are eating healthy and nutritious food. I do lots of research and have read quite a few books about child nutrition because I want to make sure I am doing everything I can to make sure I am helping my children develop healthy eating habits early on.

In my opinion, this book seemed like it was geared more towards parents who have overweight children and need guidance on how to help their children loose weight and develop healthy eating habits to last them a lifetime. She uses a "traffic light" system of grouping foods into 3 categories (green for go, yellow for caution, and red for stop). It is a little more detailed than this, but that is the general idea.

With that in mind though, even if your kids are not overweight, this book can still be very useful. I don't know about you, but there are days that I feel like I give my kids the same lunch day after day, or even the same snacks. I admit, I am not that imaginitive when it comes to food - I would be happy with the same breakfast, snack and lunch everyday (and my dinners wouldn't have to be that varied either)! My kids though, they seem to love variety! I hadn't bought canteloupe at the store for a few weeks because they hadn't been looking too good. So we finally found a good one the other day and when I cut it up, they devoured it!!! Where I could eat the same fruits and veggies each day, they love to change it up. Because of my mind block when it comes to variety of foods for my kids, this book was PERFECT for me!

There are 2 things that this book has that I LOVED: (1) LOTS of recipes!!!! and (2) meal/snack idea pages with SO many different ideas and options! I am actually keeping this book in my kitchen with all of my cook books because I will definitely be using it to help me serve up my kids some new, delicious things to eat. I have even started to let my 4 year old go through it and point on different snacks or meals he would like to try. The other day he insisted that he really wanted the Chicken Parmigian pictured in the book. I was hesitant to make it because he is not always the biggest chicken eater, but after 3 days straight of him asking for it, I finally made it. Both he and his sister cleared their plates!

One thing that I wished Joanna Dolgoff, MD talked more about in her book was the health benefits of eating unprocessed foods and organic foods. Yes, I do want to teach my children to eat healthy so they can maintain a healthy weight. But I also want to make sure that what they are eating doesn't contain harmful pesticides, or was made using growth hormones, or has chemically altered ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, or unnecessary preservatives.

Overall though, I did enjoy reading this book and going through all her recipes and meal/snack ideas. This is a book that I will definitely use going forward in my kitchen. It is also a book that I would definitely recommend to other moms and dads out there looking for ways to teach their kids healthy eating habits or for parents with overweight children that want to help their kids loose their extra weight. For more information about Dr. Dolgoff and her book Red Light, Green, Eat Right, check out her website.

Aloha Friday - 4/9

From Kailani at An Island Life:

In Hawaii, Aloha Friday is the day that we take it easy and look forward to the weekend. So I thought that on Fridays I would take it easy on posting, too. Therefore, I’ll ask a simple question for you to answer. Nothing that requires a lengthy response.If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link HERE. Don’t forget to visit the other participants! It’s a great way to make new bloggy friends!

My question this week is, did your kids enjoy bathtime as babies?

My 4 year old son and 2 year old daughter have always loved their baths! If they cry, it is only to get out. My 1 year old little girl though, is the complete opposite. I don't know if I have ever given her a bath where she has not cried!