April, 2010 | The Angel Forever

Monthly Archives April 2010

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Ready to read Hebrew

Posted on April 25, 2010 8:15 pm by TheAngelForever

Today, we were invited to a special presentation at the end of Hebrew School. The kindergarten and first graders were all ready to show us what they had learned this year. The kids, including NHL, had officially finished learning their Alef Bets. To celebrate this accomplishment, NHL’s teacher had the kids sing us this song (I took video of the kids singing, but no permission to share with the other children in it):

Here is NHL during the song. He loved singing it and had actually given us a preview of it Saturday evening. Here is NHL:

When the song was over, they were presented with their own Alef Bet books that they had made throughout the year. In addition to this, their teacher gave them an award from Alef Betty certifying that they were now ready to learn to read Hebrew!

Unlike my experience at Hebrew school, NHL loves it and is eager to go back each week. I hope this continues as we add on another day next year and beyond until his Bar Mitzvah down the road.

Categories:
interesting milestone nhl photos school weekend

Sporting Spring Shades

Posted on April 24, 2010 8:20 pm by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL and JSL,

Today, we went out to enjoy the sun while it is here. They are saying that the next four or more days are going to be filled with a lot of rain. We started off going to Home Depot to get some seeds and soil to plant veggies. NHL, you insisted on getting peas to grow. You were also happy that we decided to get some kirby cucumbers like Mimi and Papa taught you to love. JSL, you really did not care too much what we bought. You just liked sitting in the car cart and wanted to hold packages of seeds. In the end, we bought green squash, kirby cucumbers, roma tomatoes, peas, basil, and colorful mix of peppers.

From here, we decided to see if another store had sun glasses for Daddy’s glasses. We also hoped that they would have Topsy Turvy for tomatoes. When we arrived at the sun glasses area, I immediately spotted something. They had Phineas and Ferb shades, as well as some that looked like Tigger. The two of you went crazy. You begged for new shades. Daddy and I knew that you could use them, so we agreed. You were both so excited.

We continued to shop and found Topsy Turvy for not only tomatoes, but also strawberries. That really got us thinking about strawberries. Although they would probably grow well in our yard, the resident bunny would probably eat them all. So we bought one of each to try on the porch. We will head back to Home Depot later to get a few of the strawberry plants rather than starting those from seeds.

After lunch, we went outside to play and clean out the front porch. It was time to ditch the winter gear and get things inside ready for planting. Of course, this was the perfect time for both of you to test our your new shades.

You both loved them and had plenty of fun in the sun. NHL, after you fell on the sidewalk while running you were not a happy camper. Your hand hurt, so you opted to read a book on our new chairs. Needless to say, JSL had to follow along and get a book as well. Now, we just have to hope that our seeds will grow and we can pick lots of fruit and veggies from our unique garden this summer.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday flowers and plants Going Green jsl nhl photos weekend

Easy way to be green = reusable shopping bags

Posted on April 23, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

For at least two years, we have been trying to use reusable shopping bags whenever we go to the grocery store. At first, we picked up a few at the store and would forget them at home. Over time, we have obtained many bags and always have a few in the car for emergency trips to not only the grocery store, but any other location that we shop at.

It may seem odd, but we appear to have quite a little collection going. We have bags from Price Chopper, Wegmans, Hannaford, Trader Joes, Disney World, Target and one from Environsax (dream about owning more from them since they have so many gorgeous styles). Along the way, several have had to be retired from use, not being made as well as others, and being ruined from other uses. The reusable bags haul things to school, work for TechyDad, to Nana and Papa’s house when the boys stay there and other fun places near and far. No two bags are created equal and there are many different materials used to make them. We definitely have our favorites and know which do the best with frozen food, cans, boxed items or toys.

Of course, using reusable bags all the time does have a draw back or two. When you actually need a plastic bag for something, well it is often impossible to find one in our house. Those moments are few and far between, so we now keep a few plastic bags strategically located in our house. Of course, even the boys like the reusable bags. Check out the little guy playing with one the other day, and then resting by some on another shopping trip.

So my question to you this week:

Do you use reusable bags when you go shopping? If you use them, do you have a favorite brand/company? If you are not using them, is there a particular reason?

Please be sure to check out my Marcal Small Steps Products (great for Earth Month and beyond), National Geographic Little Kids, and Human Nature – Reach Out. Stay tuned because more will be coming next week.

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #96

Categories:
Aloha Friday Going Green jsl looking back photos shopping

Marcal Small Steps for Earth Month and beyond (Review/Giveaway)

Posted on April 22, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

As a community, we all need to work together to help our planet to stay clean and healthy for future generations. In our house, we have switched all of our light bulbs to the more energy efficient variety, the boys help us to recycle items, reusable bags are always with us when shopping, and we have our Nalgene bottles for water. Of course, we do other things like try to take lunches in reusable containers, plastic bags are used less often and paper plates at a minimum. I have always used scrap paper around the house to make lists. I think a lot of this stems from growing up with my Papa running a recycling plant when I was little. Seeing all of the magazines, newspapers, books and more in piles higher than my house was an eye-opener.

Recently, I was contacted by Marcal about their new line of products. They asked if I would like to review the Marcal Small Steps line of product

About Marcal Small Steps:

Marcal Smalls Steps makes toilet paper, napkins, and paper towels from 100% premium recycled paper- not trees. It may seem like a small thing, but it actually adds up. If every household in the U.S. replaced one package of traditional toilet paper with Marcal Small Steps, together we could help save nearly one million trees. And, in your own home, a family of four could save two trees a year (17 trees over 10 years) just by switching to paper products made from 100% recycled materials.

For those of us watching our budgets (who isn’t?!), Marcal doesn’t have the “green premium” often attached to earth-friendly brands. In fact, Marcal Small Steps typically sells for less than traditional paper goods that are made by cutting down trees and often contain dyes and fragrances that Marcal doesn’t use.

To celebrate Earth Month, we’ve created a calendar of the many ways you can help the environment with your own “small steps.” We hope you’ll visit our Facebook page and download this Marcalendar with some great ideas for getting a little more green this month and beyond! http://tinyurl.com/ykdm6cd

Small Steps paper products are:

100% premium recycled paper
Hypoallergenic
Virtually Lint Free
Free of Dyes and Fragrances
Manufactured without Chlorine Bleaching
Inner core is made from recycled paper

To receive a coupon and join the Marcal Movement head here to get more details. Price Chopper supermarkets carry these items. To find a store near you head to the store finder.

What we thought:

Marcal sent us a package that contained bath tissue, facial tissues, paper towels and napkins to try. We have already started to use the bath tissue. I must admit, I am a toilet paper snob. I do not use generic store brands since we have not found one that meets up to my standards. For the most part, I am loyal to a particular kind, unless sales woo me another way.

I was a little skeptical about using a recycled paper product for this manner. When I took the roll of toilet paper out of the package, the first thing I noticed was it felt similar to the toilet paper that we usually use. It felt a little different to the touch, but nothing drastically different. It was certainly not anything that my children and husband noticed. The roll was similar in size to our other rolls. It did a nice job doing what it is supposed to do, I was very pleasantly surprised. The other item I noticed, the roll seems to last longer than our other rolls. Seeing how many trees we could save with toilet paper alone, we will looking to see if the stores near us actually carry this for future use.

Given how we liked the bath tissue, my family will continue to try the rest of the products in the coming days and I will report back here.

Giveaway:

Thanks to Marcal Small Steps, one lucky reader will win a package similar to mine that will contain samples of their new products for your home.

Rules for Giveaway:

MAIN RULE – Answer the following questions: What is a "small step" that you will take beyond Eath Day to help our environment?
1 Bonus Entry – Which Marcal Small Steps product are you most interested in trying and why?
1 Bonus Entry – Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter. Be sure to include @TheAngelForever and Marcal Small Steps Earth Day Giveaway in the Tweet. Please leave a direct link to your Tweet in a separate comment for each daily entry. Example Tweet (feel free to use): Earth Day Giveaway! Win Marcal Small Steps products from @TheAngelForever to try with your family http://bit.ly/cu434Z
1 Bonus Entry – Subscribe to my RSS feed (or let me know if you already are) in a separate comment.
1 Bonus Entry – Leave a comment on any of my non-giveaway posts from the month of March/April. Be sure to leave a comment here to let me know which one. This Bonus entry may be done only twice per person.
1 Bonus Entry – Enter any of my other current giveaways (keep checking back – more being added all the time). Be sure to leave a comment here to let me know which one.
3 Bonus Entries – Add my blog button to your website and leave a link with the location. Be sure to give yourself 3 comments for credit.
5 Bonus Entries – Write a post on your blog linking to my blog about the giveaway. Be sure to leave 5 comments about this to get credit for all of your extra entries.

To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today April 22 and ends at 10:59 EST on May 6, 2010. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only.

Disclosure: I received the Small Steps products complimentary of Marcal to facillitate this review. No other compensations was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own feelings about the product that my family tried. The giveaway is also made possible thanks to Marcal.