{Giveaway} Learn Your Messy ABCs with Oscar the Grouch & his Sesame Street Friends!

Grady and I recently had the chance to review Put Me in the Story's Sesame Street: The Messy Alphabet Book. I'm a huge fan of Put Me in the Story (remember when I ordered Poppy a personalized Easter story instead of doing a chocolatey Easter basket?) 

Personalized story books are a great way to boost the enthusiasm of early readers. Grady is working hard on learning his letters and sight words; his whole face lit up when he opened the package and saw his name front and centre on his very own story.

I loved adding my own personal message to Grady, and including one of my favourite pictures of the two of us. The ordering process could not be easier. You're guided through each step, quickly and painlessly, and have an opportunity to review the final product before placing your order. Grady's personalized book was delivered in less than a week.

Enter through the Rafflecopter form for your chance to win your own Sesame Street Personalized Book Bundle & Elmo Plush!

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{Disclosure: I received product in exchange for this review; all opinions stated are my own.}

Get Dinner on the Table with HelloFresh Canada

My maternity leave ended and I went back to my office job in July. We're still trying to find the right balance of prep and organization (and checklists and to-do lists and Clipboards of Fun) to make our family unit run as smoothly as possible.

One area that's been challenging is food. Here's the thing: I try very hard to not ascribe moral value to food. I don't think it's naughty to order pizza. I don't feel like a bad mom, or a bad woman, or a bad human, if we eat takeout every night.

However. My bank account doesn't like it very much. Nor do my guts. So while I'm all for ordering takeout food to make life easier, it's not a long term solution for our family. You do you, babies. This is a safe space. No judgment here. It's just not something that we can swing three nights per week, indefinitely. 

I had the opportunity to try a HelloFresh Canada box last week and it was life-changing. I realize how dramatic that sounds but stick with me, things are about to get magical. (Pssst...if you're curious and already know you want to give it a go, HelloFresh Discount Code HILLARY60 gets you $30 off your first and second boxes.)

HelloFresh is a subscription recipe kit delivery service. You subscribe to the service and then every week, you choose three meal kits to be delivered to your door. On your delivery date, a cooler box of fresh, delicious ingredients, plus detailed instructions on how to create your meals and specific nutritional facts, shows up at your address. 

“As the leading recipe kit delivery service in Canada, HelloFresh knows a thing or two when it comes to getting dinner on the table. Designed by our team of trained chefs, each HelloFresh recipe is delivered with the exact farm-fresh ingredients needed to make a delicious and nutritious home-cooked meal in under 30 minutes. Every week HelloFresh members choose three meals from a selection of award-winning, constantly-changing recipes (say goodbye to recipe boredom!). HelloFresh then utilizes its network of local, family-owned purveyors to source the freshest ingredients possible for each of those recipes and ships the exact amounts straight to your door. No more grocery shopping, no more food waste. Just delicious, healthy, and fresh food guaranteed from pan to plate in less time than it takes to order takeout.”

I was skeptical. No one was home the day our box was delivered, and it was a hot summer day. I wasn't sure I would feel comfortable eating food that had been outside for hours. I was convinced I'd be opening up a box of spoiled food but I couldn't have been more wrong. The insulated cooler box and ice packs kept everything cool and fresh. My inner hippie cringed at the amount of packaging waste I thought I'd end up with, but almost every piece of waste created was recycled or composted. HelloFresh even runs an ice pack return program so you can save your ice packs for a few weeks and send them back in an empty HelloFresh box.

Our life is not quiet. I do not come home from work to a clean house and a hot meal on the table. It is not our reality at this point in life. And that's okay! There is plenty of time for relaxing evenings. Our weekday evenings are chaotic and rushed. Shawn picks Poppy up from daycare on his way home. I walk in the door and head straight to the kitchen to get dinner going. Between kid shenanigans and forgetting to hit the grocery store on the way home from work, Shawn or I will often reach for the phone to order a pizza to try to make things less stressful.

HelloFresh eliminates the stress. The meals come individually wrapped so you don't even have to think, you just grab one of the meals out of the fridge and get cooking. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I was able to cook my HelloFresh meals faster than I could have had a pizza delivered to my house. I was able to make nutritious, home-cooked meals on busy weekday evenings, and it didn't take a lot of complex planning or organization on my part. The least enjoyable parts of cooking (for me) are the prep: thinking about what to make and going to the grocery store to buy the ingredients. HelloFresh does both and I just had to do the parts I actually enjoy (the cooking and the eating).

The Nitty Gritty

What does it cost? There are different meal plans (family, veggie, pronto) and different levels (2 or 4 people) so the cost caries from $73.99 - $139.99/week (that includes delivery). HelloFresh Discount Code HILLARY60 gets you $30 off your first and second boxes.

Can I skip a week? Absolutely! There is no minimum subscription length and if you want to skip delivery for any reason you can. You just have to log into your account before the weekly cutoff and skip the week.

What if I don't like one of the scheduled meals? I kind of like the idea of trying new foods and cooking outside my norm, so I didn't  request any changes to my box (and I was rewarded with Halloumi! I didn't even know Halloumi was a thing!) but you can make switches if you see something you don't like. As long as you sign into your account and make the request before the weekly cutoff, you can swap out one of your meals for a recipe you'd rather try from one of the other boxes. You can also set general meal preferences like "no seafood."

So was the food any good? Yes! The food was delicious. The ingredients were fresh and the recipes were easy to follow. I liked trying new food and learning new techniques. It made weekday dinners more exciting and less stressful. It was convenient and saved me time and sanity.

What's the catch? The only cons I encountered were: no leftovers! This could definitely be a pro for some but I like having leftovers to pack for lunch. The other con I found was the tiny bottles of vinegar were difficult for me to open. It made me think there's more work to be done on the packaging to make HelloFresh more accessible. People with disabilities, or seniors who aren't as mobile as they once were, could really benefit from having a service like this bringing fresh, nutritious food to their door, but there's no way anyone with impaired hand function could open those teensy tiny bottles. Overall these are two relatively minor things and they in no way diminished my enjoyment of the meals or my appreciation of HelloFresh as a service. 

Use promo code HILLARY60 and see for yourself how HelloFresh Canada takes the angst out of dinnertime. 

Encouraging Kids to be on Mother Nature's Team As Part of The Whole Family Happiness Project

Grady is very into "teamwork" these days. Our family is a team. It's his job to be kind and loving to Poppy and follow our family rules. His kindergarten class is a team. It's his job to follow his teachers' instructions and be nice to his classmates. When we're facing a challenge with Grady, we approach it as teamwork. With the days getting longer as summer draws closer, we're making bedtime all about teamwork. It's my responsibility to brush Grady's sugar bugs and it's Grady's job to pick out a bedtime story. It's up to us as parents to make sure Grady gets enough sleep and it's Grady's job to go to bed when we tell him it's bedtime. It's amazing how excited and accepting he becomes when we frame it in a way he understands. Teamwork makes sense to him. He wants to contribute to his team.

So when we noticed that Grady was becoming less connected to the great outdoors, choosing instead to spend most of his time inside, we decided to "team up" with Mother Nature. He's always been interested in gardening but balks at doing yard work. Instead of asking him to weed the garden beds or water the lawn (booooring), we gave him his own pots and let him choose what to plant in them to build his own little garden. It's his job to water his flowers, it's his flowers' job to grow. He's not overwhelmed by a large garden or hours of yard work, but he does need to check in on his pots every day to make sure they're doing okay. It's a small part of his day but it's becoming a habit. Soon it will be second nature.

As part of his garden, we helped him build a bee bath. Despite never being stung, Grady is terrified of bees. We've come across worms, slugs, beetles, ladybugs, and many more creepy crawlies in our gardening adventures and it doesn't faze him. Add a solitary bee to the equation? Grady is out. Gardening session over. The plants are on their own, hopefully it will rain so they get a drink of water, he's heading inside where there are no bees. Bees get a bad rap with the kindergarten crowd and we wanted to boost Grady's comfort level and view bees as a necessary part of our garden. It was shockingly easy to get him on Team Bee when we explained that without bees to pollinate our flowers, there would be no strawberries (his favourite local delicacy) and without strawberries, there can be no strawberry ice cream (the horror!). It takes ten seconds to say "don't be afraid of bees" but it only takes a few seconds more to explain why bees exist and how we can help them, and how helping them boosts our own happiness (because who can be unhappy with a bowl of strawberry ice cream in front of them? Monsters, that's who.). 

I treasure our time together in the garden. We're not distracted by screens or piles of dirty dishes or "just let me throw a load of towels in the washer." We're hanging out, digging in the dirt, talking about bugs, filling watering cans, working together to make our space beautiful. We're not experienced gardeners by any stretch of the imagination (I probably have as much gardening knowledge as Grady does) but that doesn't matter. What matters is that I feel happier and less anxious when I'm connected to Mama Earth and I want to pass that on to my children. It's my job to introduce my kids to the pleasure of planting something, tending to it, caring for it, and watching it grow. It's their job to bloom. 

This post is part of The Whole Family Happiness Project. Opinions expressed are my own. For more information, or to share your Whole Family Happiness story, visit Whole Family Happiness on Facebook.

LVL Lash Lift and Tint

A few weeks ago, I asked for mascara recommendations on my Facebook page. I use mainly tarte cosmetics, and have used their Gifted mascara for years, but I was looking for a change. A friend suggested I try getting my lashes tinted. 

As fate would have it, one of my favourite bloggers, Janette from Ava to Zoe, posted a review and giveaway for an LVL Lash Lift by Stefania Lash Bar...and I won!

Truth time: I had no idea what an LVL Lash Lift even was. Stefani does LVL Enhance by Nouveau Lashes.

“LVL Enhance straightens your natural lashes at the root, creating the appearance of longer, thicker lashes. Plus the added lash tint creates a mascara-style effect, so your lashes are perfect from the moment you wake up. No extensions, no adhesive and no need for mascara! ”

— https://nouveaulashes.com/lvl-enhance-the-natural-lash-lift

I don't have a lot of time to fuss with my face (understatement!). I like that the lash lift uses my own lashes and after the first 48 hours I have no restrictions or special care instructions. The tint makes it look like I'm wearing mascara, even though my eyes are completely free of makeup. 

Stefani's home studio is cute and artistic, and her table was so comfortable I almost passed out during the hand and arm massage (while your lashes set, she does a hand and arm massage with locally made lotions). The entire process took less than an hour, was completely painless, and there were no harsh smells. The products Stefani uses are vegan and cruelty-free. 

I was a little concerned that I would wake up with irritated eyes this morning but I was pleasantly surprised. When I fall asleep without removing my mascara (BAD, HILLS) I wake up with angry red, itchy eyes so I was expecting something similar this morning. My eyes were totally fine this morning. No pain, no discomfort, no itch, just beautiful lashes that made me look like I'd already spent some time in front of the mirror. I'm thrilled.

So! Who wants to see the magic Stefani performed?

Disclaimer: I won this service in a giveaway so I did not pay for it. I am not required to write, nor am I being compensated for, this post. All opinions expressed are my own.