Christmas Lists

I'm still here!  We had a week off of school and a fun trip to see family north of Chicago.  The girls did well on our car ride and enjoyed a visit to the Shedd Aquarium.  It was great to celebrate Thanksgiving with my parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  On our car trip home we pulled out the Christmas music and officially started the Christmas season.  Usually we go cut down a tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, but that ritual hasn't taken place yet.  (How am I going to keep Esther away from the tree this year??)

Of course I've been obsessing about Christmas lists for weeks already now.  We don't purchase many new things for the kids throughout the year, with the exception of Christmas and birthdays.  I spend quite a bit of time reading reviews, researching, plotting, and planning my lists.  Its not that my lists are long, they are just carefully thought out.  ;)  I am still in the planning stages, but I'll share a few of my ideas with you.  I am also hoping to put together a Christmas idea list containing items that I have reviewed on my blog and love.  Thank goodness the girls can't read my blog yet.... (and I can't tell you what I'm getting for my mom because she DOES read this!)

Mommy Necklaces - I got Lucy and Julia each a Mommy Necklace, an accent strand shortened to 24 inches, one pink and one plum colored.  I also got a donut bead for each.  I think the girls will love having their own necklace so they can play mommy, or just wear them as cute little girl necklaces.

Muffin Tins - Call me crazy, but the girls are going to be so excited about their new orange muffin tins.  On Amazon they are part of the buy four things for the price of three promotion.  I got three tins and my new large cookie scoop for the price of three items.  Adding some fun printed cupcake liners and making food picks with stickers and toothpicks will round out the gift.

Twilight Turtle - This one is for Julia.  She still has a hard time going to sleep at night and I think this will encourage her.  Little known fact - Diapers.com does price matching.  Well, they used to and they are phasing it out, but if you email and ask they might price match for you.  I got them to match the Amazon.com price on this ($10 cheaper).  If you are a new customer you could then use the code ONEWORD for an additional 15% off your order.

I haven't decided what to get Lucy yet, but I'm saving my Swagbucks Amazon.com gift cards to purchase it with.  If you're not signed up for Swagbucks, you should be!

Esther has Christmas and a birthday coming up.  Can you believe she's almost one year old already?  I'm considering getting her a Playmobil 123 set, but she still puts everything in her mouth.  Some of those pieces are pretty small.  I'm in love with this adorable block set (and in love with the store Julabug, review coming soon!).

My mom got Lucy a LeapFrog Tag and Julia a Tag Junior that I am excited about.  Sorry, no photos in this post, I don't want my kids getting any ideas!

How about you?  Any fun Christmas ideas this year?  Do you obsess about what to get your kids as much as I do?

Goodbye Plastic, Hello.... Squash Plant?

Sometimes I think I'm pretty crunchy, crispy in fact.  Other times I think "Seriously?  Why did it take me so long to figure this out?".  Like the other day when I realized that I was scrubbing myself with a big chunk of plastic.  I hate plastic.  I needed a new scrubby puff, but I didn't want to go out and buy more plastic only to have it end up in the plastic-Texas-in-the-ocean when I was done with it.  So I went searching and found some really cool options!

Did you know that a loofah is a dried squash plant?  I had no idea!  I found the coolest Etsy shop that sells homegrown loofahs, and they sent us two to try out.  These are grown in Florida at EcoFarm.  Check out these pictures they sent me:

growing...

drying on the vine...

Evidently the seeds are quite prolific and will sprout anywhere.  The growing cycle is quite long, so I'm not sure how well they would do in Michigan.  You can order seeds here if you are interested in trying it out.  (If you do, let me know how it goes!)

These were hand milked and dried in the sun last year because the weather was so moist.

We have been enjoying using our loofahs in the shower instead of a big ball of plastic.  Its a bit scratchy at first, but works well.  Loofahs can even be used to scrub produce, or cut in slices and used as a soap saver.  Here is a blurb from the Etsy shop owner TiffyPop about loofah care:

You want to make sure that they dry in between uses, so hang them or lay them on an open shower rack, not in a pool of water. You can cut them down depending on how and what you are using them for. they last for months really, or until they arent scrubby enuf :) i spray mine with a vinegar and tea tree disinfectant spray every once in a while, and sometimes lay it out in the sun just to crisp it back up. 

So, am I the only one who didn't know what a loofah was?  Anyone want to try one out?  Just leave a comment on this post and you will be entered to win the loofah shown above!  For an extra entry, become a Facebook fan of One Little Word She Knew and let me know that in a second comment.  I'll close this on December 3 at midnight.  Now go check out EcoFarmFL's Etsy shop; a loofah would make a super fun Christmas gift!

Reusable Straws

We use a lot of straws around here.

For drinking soup...

for smoothies... 

... and I won't even tell you how many straws we go through now that we have an amazing soda machine on our countertop.  We recently found some super cool reusable straws that we are enjoying.

Have you ever been to Reusit.com?  Its a great website, very informative, and will have you wanting to use reusable everything.  A fun feature is that you can shop "by disposable replaced".  For example, click on "straws" and you will see several options for reusable straws.  We got to try out both the stainless steel straws and the glass straws.  I really love both of them for different reasons.

The stainless steel set is great because it comes with 4 straws, and they are light and unbreakable.  These fit nicely in the holes of our smoothie cups.  You'll have to get something like this to use as a cleaning brush, which we already had.  I don't like not being able to see that the straw is completely clean, so we are careful to wash these out right after use.  They are bent at the top, but not bendable.  I'd like to see these come in a bit shorter size so that they would work in my girls open top cups without falling over.  Overall these are great straws and fun to use.  

The glass set is gorgeous.  I love the little dot design.  These are the straws that Ross and I reach for most.  Because they are made of glass, they are thicker and do not fit in the straw holes of the girls' cups. I don't think I would let them use these anyway for fear of them breaking.  There is a lifetime guarantee though, which is nice.  The straw brush that came with these ended up rusting and seemed too stiff and scratchy.  I wish these were just a bit cheaper or came with 6 in a pack instead of 3.  They are definitely a fun item to have though.

So which set would I choose?  Both!  The stainless steel set is great for the kids, and is fairly inexpensive.  The glass set is probably my favorite because they are so pretty and fun to use.  We are totally enjoying our reusable straws and having fun serving them to guests that visit.  These would make a uniquely fun Christmas gift, we give them two thumbs up.  Thanks Reusit.com!

Milk Nursingwear

Milk Nursingwear is a new store offering nursing tops, dresses, and more.  They have a fun selection of colors and a nice variety of styles.  A great feature about their shop is that you can see photos of each item's nursing opening as well as a back view.  Most of their tops are solid colors, which make them versatile pieces to add to your wardrobe (add a Mommy Necklace and you're all set!).

I recently got to try out the knot-front top pictured above.  Unfortunately I chose a size small, and it was too big on me.  I wasn't thinking and washed it before trying it on, so I can't exchange it.  The top is big around the arm holes and just kind of baggy throughout.  If it were smaller, I'm sure this would be a great top.  The front pulls aside for easy nursing access.  This is a nice lightweight fabric that can be worn with jeans, or easily dressed up.

Check out Milk Nursingwear for more great selections!