The Carseat Company Conspiracy (A Pissy Post)

I'm a little pissy about something and so I will share it with you! Lucky!

We had a garage sale last weekend. I decided to part with a carseat that we used for (I think) our last 4 kids. We were never in so much as a teensy fender-bender. Of course nobody at the garage sale bought it, even though it has a base and is in AMAZING shape.

I tried to put it on the porch for the charity to take and THEY LEFT IT!

So I ask you, what can I do with it? Since everyone is so freaked out about used carseats that have possibly been in a wreck and are possibly cracked and could possibly not work when needed in the future, where does that leave all the carseats?

We are so damn concerned with BEING GREEN in this country lately, but I ask you how many carseats are sitting in landfills, to NEVER DECOMPOSE?'

Don't ride me about how we want our babies to be safe and all that. I get it, okay? But there has to be some way to like do a sonogram on a carseat to see if it has a hairline fracture or something, right? And if it passes as NEVER BEEN IN A WRECK, then let's use it again!!!!!

You'll use cloth diapers and feed your kid all organic but you are perpetuating landfill crap, new mommies!

YES, I used a USED carseat back in 2001 when I had my first kid. A friend had used it and a friend before her. This was back in the day before bases and we had to roll up a towel and put it under the back of the carseat to make sure it was tilted correctly. I also did not use special expensive baby detergent (yes, I know some kids really do have sensitive skin). Do these things make me a bad mom? Nah.

I think the carseat companies just want you to believe all this crap and just buy more carseats ... at $100+ a pop. Think about it.

So I'm gonna try to Freecycle the dang thing before I throw it in a Dumpster. I'll let you know how THAT goes.

*UPDATE: Thank God for Facebook or I would know nothing. One person said the local health dept. might take them for the needy. Another person said you can go online to see how to recycle the entire seat! Another said to post it like on Facebook to see if someone wants it and trusts me that it has not been in a wreck! There ya go!

Moon Sand Review

Maybe your kids or grandkids have been asking for Moon Sand for a long time, but you're scared.  "What if it's like that crappy Floam?" you wonder.  "And it's expensive!" you proclaim!

You wanna know what I think about Moon Sand?  I love it! I don't love vacuuming it off the floor, but it's more fun and less mess than Play-do and Floam and other junk that's out there these days. My husband says it's like if you took an eraser and erased for an hour ... the eraser "leavings" are like Moon Sand, only it somehow sticks together like nice, wet beach sand -- only better!

I give it two thumbs up and 5 Dove chocolate hearts! A great gift for a kid at Christmas or for a birthday!

Originally published 4/30/10

Adult Preschool at My House

I picked up a 2007 copy of Parenting Magazine that was being tossed out at my library and came across a great thing on the inside back cover. It's called "Preschool Ideas We'd Love to Steal." Here are my favorites:

Time-outs. YES! I need a time-out sometimes! From my kids, from my husband, from other people in general. Let's take more time-outs!

Free play. YES! I need to stop focusing so much on getting everything done and stop and turn on the music and just dance with the kids.

Snacks every two hours. Well, I kinda have this one covered already. If I don't snack, I turn into a bear.

Super-enthusiastic greeting at the end of the day. Well, I do get that from my husband, which surprises me after 17 years of being together. But I'll take it!

Buddy system. Every now and then I do this ... like when a friend is coming over and offers to bring a nice coffee or when I offer to buy something for a friend who is currently cash-strapped.

MANDATORY NAPTIME. Need I say more? I'm not sure who will be watching my kids while I take my daily mandatory nap, though. The Nap Fairy, perhaps?

Got any to add?

Crockpot Chili (EASY!)

I love this meal to make life easy ... and cheaper because I don't use canned beans! I love this meal for Tuesdays when the kids have religious education class and I work the nursery there. It runs from 4:30-5:45, so it's nice to get home and have dinner READY!

You will need:
2 pounds ground beef
1 cup pinto beans (or just used canned!)
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can diced tomatoes
Chili seasoning to taste
Sour cream, cheese, crackers, onions

Follow instructions on beans for the quick method where you boil them then let them sit for a while in the hot water. Meanwhile, brown ground beef until no longer pink, then drain. Add chili seasoning and some water and mix. Toss it in a slow cooker. Add corn and tomatoes. Drain water from pinto beans and rinse. (a friend told me the more rinsing you do, the less gas you get later!!!!) Add beans to slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours and enjoy!

Grab your can of air freshener for later.

Wordless Wednesday with LINKY: It's Not Easy Bein' a Kid

Samuel, age 2, trying to take out the trash

Samuel, helping put lunch on the tray

Samuel, after a long day, asleep in his carseat with his sister's shoes on

Tackle-It Tuesday: Garage Sale!

There comes a time in everyone's life when they say:

I HAVE TOO MUCH JUNK AND WANT TO SELL IT!!!!

I usually just donate our unwanted/unused things, but the kids were wanting to sell some of their stuff and we heard there was a Neighborhood Garage Sale coming up, so we started saving up our stuff to sell.

The kids ended up making more money than we did. Even listing it on Craigslist twice, we didn't get as much traffic as we usually do and I probably made about $1/hour at the end. Our HUGE NEIGHBORHOOD GARAGE SALE probably had about 10 house participating ... sheesh! C'mon, people, I know ya'll have junk to get rid of!

** Come back soon to see my pissy post about getting rid of carseats and the conspiracy involved!

Garage sales can be fun, but in the end they are never worth it for us. And we ended up with all this on the porch to be donated to a charity.

STILL, we got rid of a bunch of stuff from the house. So Tackle-It Tuesday is a SUCCESS!!!!

The question for you for today is: How do you feel about hosting a garage sale?

Happy Fall Sunday!

Whew. I've been busy this last week, so I'm taking a break! Check out my tons o' giveaways down the left side of the blog ... I have an addiction to giving things away ... who knew?

We had a garage sale, a day at the farmstead with friends, a NICU reunion at our local children's museum, an orthodontist appointment for Joel, Scouts and so much more!

I hope you are all doing well and are having a lovely fall day. Check in with me in the comments section ... I do read them all and get back when I can!

Come back Monday night for a Toys R Us gift card 6-hour flash giveaway from 6-12 EST. Then Wednesday night I'm having a Starbuck's gift card 6-hour flash giveaway, same Bat time, same Bat channel.

See you then!

Wordless Wednesday with LINKY: Big Sisters

Thank you, Baby Jesus, that Sam covered up his boy bits for this cute picture!

EXPIRED: Mia Mariu Cosmetics Giveaway! (and guest post by Kara Teel)

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by, and sorry this giveaway is over. There's still a review below, though, then I'd love it if you'd head to the RIGHT of the blog (picture me as the flight attendant I almost was giving you directions with my arms) to check out my most popular posts.

Be sure to sign up for an email subscription to The Kerrie Show here and follow me on my Facebook fan page for more updates! I'm also on Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Instagram!

And if you get hungry while reading my blog, please check out my books on Amazon, one of which includes The Tater Tot Casserole Cookbook, available as an ebook for $0.99, as an ebook for FREE if you have Kindle Unlimited, and also as a print book! Thank you for your support!

Welcome Kara Teel of Kara's Steals and Deals! She'll be guest posting about her experience with cosmetics, which is very similar to mine! Enjoy, and good luck winning the cosmetics!

The Joys of Home Ownership

New windows all over the house = $4,000

New back sliding glass door (included in the price of new windows, above)

Trees trimmed so they aren't over power lines = $300

Rest of tree trimmed that you will save up for later = $800

New roof = $4,000 do-it-yourself

Owning your own home = PRICELESS (?!)

SmartSeat Chair Protector Review

Dang, I'm such a stage mom and stage wife! I love including pictures of my family with items that are up for review by moi. Also, the kids usually are dying to open the packages that come, so I just grab la camera and click away while they pose! Someday they will probably ask me for a kickback, but for now they are FREE MODELS!

Moving on ...

Here is Sam holding our latest acquisition: SmartSeat Chair Protectors. Allow me to explain ...

Okay, so we used to go to my mom's house for the weekend or longer when Aron was out of town a lot. Or lately we go for the whole day. Sometimes we go to my dad's house for the whole day. They each have nice chairs. I believe Sam usually picks the WHITE FABRIC one to sit in at my dad's house and inevitably we are having something saucy like pizza. My mom has nice OLD FABRIC chairs.

We used to have to put a towel down on the chair or else do heavy scrubbing post-meal. But now, thanks to this baby ...

... I can just fold it up and Velcro it to any seat that we don't want to ruin. We don't use this at our house because we have wooden chairs and they are trashable, but when we go somewhere where people have nice things we whip it out. It's Scotch-guarded, too! We spilled a drink on the seat protector and it beaded up! When we were done, we undid the seat protector, took it home and washed it. (Not really; we forgot it at my mom's house, but that's what we SHOULD have done and is probably what YOU will do!).

This cool product comes in 4 colors and can be purchased here.

I did not get paid to write this review.

Mr. Kerrie's Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe!!!!!

So you think you're ready to make spaghetti sauce, huh? In case you missed it, here's the post where I shared how I process tomatoes so they'll be all frozen and ready to make sauce when you are ready.

Before I give you the recipe, let me show you the process of making the sauce. First, make sure your commercial freezer door was somehow gets left open just a smidge so your frozen processed tomatoes will be almost perfectly thawed for you when you are ready. Seriously, though, thaw the frozen tomatoes that you already have processed (skinned, cored, quartered). Below is my hubs dumping out the tomatoes (unspackled walls in the background; I'll get around to it; get off my back already!). Note the big stockpot, even though the recipe I give you will be for if you just use a one-gallon bag of tomatoes. He probably quadrupled his recipe for each batch.

Your tomatoes will be gorgeous in the pot and ready to make sauce for you to enjoy. Tomatoes are all about making you happy.

Here's my man chopping up herbs from our herb pots on our deck. You have my permission to use store-bought. Just don't come raid my herb pots ... or try to steal my man who can cook.

Thickening on the stove, a ninety-seven 2-day process.

1 gallon processed tomatoes (16 cups, 4 quarts)
1 T rosemary, fresh, chopped
1 small red onion chopped
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped
1 bulb fresh garlic, chopped  (or if you are like me, just use 1 T minced from a jar)
1/4 cup chopped basil
1 T fresh oregano, chopped
1 T dried and chopped thyme
3 bay leaves
1 T dry marjoram
1 T salt to taste

Start all of the above boiling in a stock pot.

Reduce heat to a simmer. It will take hours for this to reduce and thicken ... 4 hours or more with you stirring every 10 minutes.

If you get annoyed by this lengthy process, toss in some tomato paste to desired thickness whenever you are ready to throw in the towel. [! Don't really put a towel into the sauce, please!!!!!]

Once it's as thick as you want it and tastes how you like it (might need more salt, a little sugar, more garlic if you love it a lot), keep it hot then either eat it up yum or CAN IT. No, I am not telling you to personally can it, like to shut up. I am saying get out your canning jars and lids and screw-tops and your big boiler thingie and go to town. This is the part where I get off because I'm not the canning expert in my family.

Thankful Thursday with Linky!: Tbox To-Go Tampon Holder

I like to involve my husband in the review process whenever I can, especially when feminine products are involved. Right about now you should be thinking something along the lines of, "Her poor father, the dad to an only child and a girl at that." or "Her poor husband." while shaking your head. P.S. Don't look at my unspackled walls. I am not proud of my brand of lazy.

How do you store your tampons in your diaper bag or purse or backpack? Do you just toss them in and the wrapper comes apart and the tampon gets all dirty and then you throw it away? Do you just stuff them in your bag and then can't find one when you need one? Do they fall out at a bad time? Does your kid get one out in the middle of church and wave it around before you can stop him?

The Tbox To-Go tampon holder is genius, and I wish it had been around when I was a teenager. Heck, it's cool for me now, and I'm 41 years old. Not only do you not have to worry about any of the above, but it also has a pill box attached to the end for you to put your Advil in! The Tbox holds up to 3 tampons, and they are protected. And nobody can see what's in there. And your kids can't get it open very easily. Trust me, I did the quality control test at my house.

The Tbox comes in three different colors and can be purchased here for only $14.99 (free shipping on two or more). They can be found here on Facebook.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Link up your reviews/giveaways here!

Keeping Kids Busy/Homeschool Science/Art/Geology

There are many FREE ways to keep kids occupied, but why not go to Michael's and blow a bunch of money on, say, a lip balm making kit or on a paleontologist kit? Then why not hit a garage sale and buy a bunch of cheap Easter egg kits and color Easter eggs in August? And then why not just call it art and science and geology?

Tackle-It Tuesday: Kid Shoes

Every Tuesday, I tackle a different project around my home that's been bugging all of us!

I have a very nice problem: too many kid shoes. We receive shoes from all over the place. We have shoes for Sam that his brothers gently wore. We have shoes from older boys for our older boys. We have shoes from older girls for our girls. Sometimes we find we don't have a particular size and have to go buy a cheap pair. I can't remember what happened in Wyoming but I do remember having to stop at Target in Salt Lake City to buy new shoes for Eva. We accumulate shoes around here. Not me, but the kids. Definitely not me. I wish!

So the only thing I've been putting off longer than SPACKLING (yes, I will get around to it ... probably when the weather is colder. Then you will be sick of spackling and sanding and painting pictures, mark my words.

Packaways Rockin' Storage Solution Review

I swear the blogging/reviewing universe is looking out for me because I keep getting these totally useful and absolutely wonderful things to review! Packaways Multipurpose Storage Boxes are no exception.

Here's my daughter modeling the product for you, readers. We'd just been to the pool, so that would explain the swimsuit!

Here are the reasons why I love these boxes:

1. They are colorful (more colorful than clear plastic bins, that's fo sho!)
2. You don't have to keep track of the dang lid (stuff gets lost around here, SHOCKER!)
3. They set up fast and easy and anybody could do it, even a kid
4. They have white panels on the sides so you can write on them what's inside the box
5. They stack easily
6. They come in different sizes
7. They are sturdy
8. They store FLAT when you're not using them so you I don't have to listen to your my husband gripe about having too much stuff and where will we put it all and on and on (hint: you store stuff INSIDE the boxes and keep it wherever you want and if you don't need the box right now you store it nice and flat, say, under a bed or in a closet or behind the fridge!)
9. They make good fort boxes for the kids
10. They make great moving boxes
11. They store old baby clothes so I can't actually SEE them, thereby making me want another baby
12. They are made in America (not that there's anything wrong with other countries, dear readers from other countries, but I happen to live in America and like to support American-made stuff when I can)

Here they are on Facebook (you gotta LIKE them!), and here's a little ditty on YouTube.


I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Live Clean (Baby) Products Review

This Live Clean (Baby) stuff makes me want to have another baby. Instead, I used it on my current brood and on myself and absolutely love it! Let's go over the products, which are available at Walgreen's and also through Walgreens.com (and I found some on Drugstore.com also). I love that these products are eco-friendly with natural ingredients that are good for my family and for the environment.

Non-petroleum jelly. Wondering why it's NOT petroleum jelly? Check out this creepy article. This stuff is just as great as petrolatum-containing products but I feel better putting it on Sam's buns, on owies and on my lips.

Shampoo and wash. Smells great and works great to clean my little grubby ones and their hair.

Baby bath. Smells amazing and makes great bubbles for the littles to mess around in the tub.

Baby lotion. I kinda mighta stolen this for myself. I did put some on the kids, but why should they have all the soft skin? It smells nice (seeing a trend here?) and keeps me moisturized all day.

Bar soap. This comes 3 bars to a box, so I put one in the kids' bathroom and one in ours. My husband and I love it for showering and I love knowing I'm getting the kids clean without perfumey junk.

Check back in the coming weeks because Live Clean (Baby) had agreed to send an entire set of these products (plus diaper rash ointment) to one lucky winner in a giveaway. I'll be tweeting and Facebooking like crazy so make sure you click the top left side of the blog to stalk me everywhere you possibly can!

Disclaimer: I got these products for free but was not paid to review them.

Returning to School Uniquely

Today I'm taking a little break from the production of The Kerrie Show, and we have a guest post by HB Redbird about heading back to school in a unique and trendy way.

More schools are going to uniforms and pre-packaged school supplies. It is difficult for children to feel unique in a public-school setting. Parents are left with children who wish they could have a specific color notebook or something to call their own. Of course, children could be unique with backpacks and lunch boxes, but parents can make their children light up with the use of personalized gifts for school supplies. 

Thankful Thursday: Pourty Potty Seat

Sometimes I love my job. Like when a Pourty Potty Seat (sounds like Port-a-Potty, right, and it is!) gets delivered to my front door when I have a kid who is almost 3 years old thinking about potty training! Here are some pictures before we discuss the product:

We got all excited and told him he got something in the mail.

"Is it a hat?"

Sister Callie took him up to the bathroom with it ... it was a family affair.

Later he really peed in it! Then we just picked it up by the front (the "cat ear" go in the back") and dumped it into the toilet, then rinsed it out.

I had actually gotten rid of our last potty seat after Eva potty trained because it was such a clunky pain in the butt. I got sick of the lid falling on them when they were using it, wrestling with it to get the white bowl out to dump into the toilet then getting it back into the potty seat. And it was kinda big. So he's been attempting to stand on tippy toe to pee in the big toilet but that doesn't always work out. God then sent us a Pourty :-)

Other potty seats cost up to $30. The sturdy, award-winning, already a hit in the UK (Beatles, anyone?) Pourty is only $14.95 through Amazon.com and you can toss it in your vehicle for on-the-road fecal fun.

Here are some better pics the company sent over:

Disclaimer: This company found me and asked if I would like to try their product. They did not pay me to review it, but I did put a link to Amazon.com in here if you want to buy it, and I do get a teensy kick-back on that.

Wordless Wednesday: Cross-Dressing Kids

Okay, so you have 3 pictures of my daughter Eva dressing in her brothers' clothes. She also has Sam dressed up and she called them the Krowt Brothers.

This one is older .... Sam dressing in some princess costume or another. This is what happens when little boys and little girls live in the same house together. Go figure. It's cute. Maybe they'll all be on Project Runway someday or something.