If you think having one micro-manager boss is bad, try having one sitting on your lap and another looking over your shoulder.

Hello Everyone!

I know it’s be awhile since I’ve posted. There’s good reason for my missing in action-ness. I’ve been furiously coding the new blog site. It’s a completely new and completely custom design, and I’m doing all the coding myself from scratch!  I was hoping that I would be able to launch the site this week, but IE7 had different ideas, causing me to have to re-style virtually the whole things since I had coded it for IE8 and the site was looking totally wonky in IE7. Blech. When will all browsers start adhering to CSS standards completely? When? (Sorry for my slightly nerd rant, but I know quite a few of you are coders yourselves and can relate )

Work has also been completely crazy the past week or so. I’ve got about 5 projects that are all needing to be finished last Tuesday – but a girl can only do so many things at once. So sometimes after a day of debugging a new Drupal site to try to figure out why on earth I can’t create a new page, I’m just not in the mood to come home and code some more. I’m sure you understand…at least I hope you do.

So the NEW plan is to launch the new website on Monday. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I’ve already got a few great giveaways lined up plus an amazing story about baby birds, so I hope you’ll stay tuned and will move with me once everything is ready. The ends is near and with the end will come the beginning of a new journey that I how you all will enjoy taking with me.

Peace & Blessings,

Miriam

If you have young children, or even older children who used to be young, then you know that kids can and will be picky eaters. If it looks funny, smells funny, or is the wrong color, odds are it won’t be eaten tasted or tried. Wait…describes me now….

Fortunately my parents don’t have to worry about what to feed me, but for those of us who still have to try to convince kids to eat their vegetables and other “what’s that” foods, we’ve had to become creative, and dare I say, sneaky, in order to make sure the kids eat a healthy, balanced diet.

If you have a great “nugget” of wisdom for how you get your picky eaters to stop saying “no!” and start saying yes to new foods, then you could win a $5,000 savings bond in the Tyson’s Tell Us Your Little Nugget contest. Along with nutrition expert and mom Robin Miller, Tyson’s is working to share the mealtime nuggets that we’ve tried and succeeded. Some of Robin’s nuggets including serving hands on food and naming foods more fun and creative names.

To view all of Robin’s nuggets and to share your nugget for a chance to win, visit www.yourlittlenugget.com. Three random entrants will receive a $1,500 savings bond plus a year’s supply of Tyson 100% All Natural Chicken Nuggets. One grand prize winner will receive a $5,000 savings bond plus the year’s supply of nuggets.

Tell Us Your Little Nugget

Most moms have tried almost everything to get their kids to stop saying “no!” to the new or unfamiliar foods on their plates. Once moms find that “nugget” of mealtime wisdom that gets their fussy eaters to try new foods and help build a foundation of balanced nutrition, they often want to pass this valuable information along to other moms.

To encourage moms to share their own “nugget” of mealtime wisdom, Tyson is launching the “Tell Us Your Little Nugget” program at www.yourlittlenugget.com for a chance to win great prizes. Simply submit your “nugget” of mealtime wisdom, which can include any tip that has pleased the young, picky eaters in your household while building the fundamentals of balanced nutrition.

I’m going to share my nugget right now – which is to use sweet and sour sauce for dipping. It can be used on virtually any food and the dipping experience really engages the kids.

Good luck!

It’s hot, you’ve just finished working out or chasing the kids around the yard. Sweat is pouring from your brow and you’re starting to feel a little woozy. You need to get hydrated – STAT! You need to drink water, but even better than just water is water with electrolytes. Electrolytes, such as sodium and potassium, help to get you re-hydrated and keep your blood pH balanced. Many sports drinks have electrolytes in them, but they aren’t always convenient. You have to buy them in advance, they aren’t always cheap, and they can have over 100 calories per bottle.

Enter Crystal Light Pure Fitness, the latest addition to the Crystal Light product line. The concept is simple. Keep the small packages of Crystal Light Pure Fitness in your purse, in your car, in your pocket, or wherever you are. If you’re in need for some hydration, just add a packet to a bottle (16.9 fl oz) of water, shake to mix, and voila! You have a grape, strawberry kiwi, or lemon lime flavored fitness drink.

Crystal Light Pure Fitness does not contain artificial sweeteners, flavors, or preservatives and has just 15 calories and 3 grams of sugar per serving. It is also caffeine free, and gluten free. The sweetness of the beverage comes from Truvia, which is derived from the stevia plant, and is an all-natural, zero-calorie sweetener. Crystal Light Pure Fitness also has the previously mentioned sodium and potassium electrolytes to help you get hydrated during light activity.

We had an opportunity to try all three flavors of Crystal Light Pure Fitness.

	Strawberry Kiwi Crystal Light Pure Fitness Strawberry Kiwi has a light, subtle flavor. The kiwi flavor was the predominant flavor for me, but even the I noticed it the most with the after taste.
	Grape Crystal Light Pure Fitness Grape smelled just like a grape drink. Don’t laugh…there are some “grape” drinks out there that don’t even come close to smelling like grape. This one wasn’t super sweet, but it was definitely a good grape flavor with a slight tartness to it. The most surprising thing for me was that the drink wasn’t grape purple colored. Crystal Light Pure Fitness is colored only with natural ingredients, so maybe there’s a narrow color spectrum that they can create. I don’t know…in the end the color didn’t bother me because the flavor of the drink was still good.
	Lemon Lime I thought the Crystal Light Pure Fitness Lemon Lime tasted like Sprite without the carbonation. For me, the lemon flavor was the stronger of the two, with just a hint of the lime. I drank this after running ladders one hot Saturday afternoon and though it was the perfect refreshing drink. Just add it to a bottle of ice water and Mmm – awesome.

Overall I think that Crystal Light Pure Fitness is a delicious and convenient way to help you stay hydrated. It can also be an important aid to help encourage those of us who don’t drink a lot of water, to start drinking more – sometimes you want something with flavor, and this is one way to get the flavor while drinking water!

Crystal Light Pure Fitness is available in stores nationwide. It costs around $3.29 for a box of seven packets. For more information about Crystal Light Pure Fitness and Crystal Light, you can Like Crystal Light on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Disclaimer: This post consists of my (and/or fellow tester) opinions only. No compensation was given for this review/giveaway. I did receive free Crystal Light products from the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the purposes of testing. This did not affect the outcome of this review.