back to school: 10 must haves for lice prevention and treatment

lice. just the words sends chills up my arms. we have never had to deal with lice in our homes (knock on some serious wood), but have had so many friends that have had it. word is, at some point, everyone gets it. i polled all my friends for what products they use to prevent and fight lice in their homes. i, for one, am stocking up and planning on having a "lice" bin in my home ready to go now that back-to-school time is upon us and the threat is real, folks. eek! what are your favorite lice treatment and prevention products? do tell! help a fearful mama out! 

visipest uv ultraviolet 9 led blacklight pocket flashlight for revealing animal lice

this awesome little product enables you to quickly find those creepy little lice and eggs quickly using uv light.

cool shield no allergy waterproof pillow protector breathable cotton terry zippered encasement protects against lice, etc.

cover up those pillows and keep those lice out so that when an outbreak happens you don't need to worry about ditching those pillows all together.

cool shield no allergy waterproof mattress protector - breathable terry cover protects against lice, etc.
a mattress is an even bigger investment than a pillow. why not protect them from lice and any other ickyness, like bed bugs or vomitting. gross.

nit free terminator lice comb -- removes nits

this handy tool is a necessity, it seems for the war against lice. without one of these, removal of them is not going to happen. 

rid home lice control spray, lice control system

friends of mine swear by this handy spray on things that you can't get into the washer and dryer....like a couch or an uncovered mattress. (is anyone else itching just reading this?!).

liceadex-ex home & bedding spray :: complete lice home removal - 32 oz

loving this eco friendly version of the above spray. it kills all the little creatures and leaves a fresh scent, too.

liceguard robi comb electronic lice comb

there is something about really zapping and killing these buggers that i love, love, love!!! kills lice and eggs on contact?! yes, please.

vamousse head lice treatment
it is hard to find a non-toxic lice treatment. not only is this one non-toxic, but it is applied in a mousse, which makes application so much easier (or so i'm told).

vamousse head lice protection shampoo

as follow-up to treatment, this lice shampoo is used to ensure the lice stay gone for good. also non-toxic and easy to use in place of your normal kiddo shampoo. 

fairy tales repel conditioning spray
in my lice paranoia, i have found this amazing product. i'd like to think it is partly to credit our lice-free state thus far. i just spray it on the boys hair before school and comb it, like a detangler.....and it smells like rosemary. love!

fairy tales rosemary repel creme shampoo, 12 fl.oz. + conditioner, 8 fl.oz.

we also use these products during the school week at our home. the little lice apparently hate rosemary so i clearly love it! 

ALDI kid-made lunches day 2

we are on day two of our ALDI school lunch challenge and our kitchen full of little girl workers is buzzing. if you missed our post yesterday, you can catch up here:

ALDI school lunch challenge

our team of little girl chefs are still in the kitchen working on school lunches for the week. today they have decided to make their own version of lunchables. you should have heard these girls chatting in the kitchen. they said, "lunchables you buy in the grocery store are horrible for you." and "they are too expensive. my mom only lets us get them on special occasions like field trips." well, there you have it people. the kids have spoken and, though they love lunchables, they understand they can't have them every day. by making their own, they learn quickly that their lunches can be more affordable and that they are able to pick some healthy options to make their lunches a little better for them (there were no candy bars in these homemade lunches). 

ALDI kid-made lunches day 2: homemade lunchables

here is what you will need for today's lunch:

1/2 bag sliced lunch mate salami

4 oz. happy farms mozzarella cheese cut into slices

1 sleeve savoritz whole wheat crackers

1/2 cucumber cut into slices

baby carrots

3/4 cup friendly farms sour cream

1/2 package stonemill essentials ranch salad dressing mix
1 package friendly farms probiotic strawberry yogurt
peanut-butterscotch o's for snack

this lunch is super easy for the kids to make. 

have the kids stack the salami in ten slice stacks and cut the salami into quarters. set aside. 

the kids can slice the cheese into slices and then cut those slices in half to form squares. arrange the cheese and salami slices in the lunch box (or put them in bags) along with about 10-12 whole wheat savoritz crackers.

mix the veggie dip. in a bowl, mix 3/4 cup sour cream and 1/2 package of ranch dip together. put the dip into plastic containers to take to school (there will be enough leftover to save for some after-school snacks.)

slice 1/2 cucumber into slices and divide among the lunches. add baby carrots and a strawberry yogurt to each lunch. add a snack and a drink and you are good to go! easy, fun and delicious for our little lunch makers!

there is one extra lunch for another child or for another day! perfect, easy and two for the work of one. my five year old volunteered quickly to eat the extra...happy day!

this post is sponsored by ALDI. all thoughts and opinions are our own.

aldi school lunch challenge

ahhhh...back to school. i love the routines and the academic challenges of it all. what i don't love is touching cold turkey at 6:00 in the morning. school lunches are not my favorite thing to prepare so i have assigned that task to my children. i figure at 12, 9 and 8 they are plenty big enough to make their own lunches. now that i have a five year old heading to kindergarten, i figure he is going to have to learn how to stand on his own as well. i'm trying to teach them responsibility and the more jobs i assign to them, the more they appreciate me. i'll take that and the satisfaction of knowing they will at least be able to feed themselves something when they leave my house one day.

ALDI school lunch challenge

recently we were given a challenge by ALDI to come up with and prepare at least two school lunches using $50.00 in ALDI groceries. well, we decided we could certainly do better than that! we decided to find and create lunches that our own kiddos could make for themselves. over the next week we will share with you what our kids created and hopefully give you some ideas of things you can make with your own kids for lunches this year. 

ALDI= basics

i am relatively new to the south. i was born and raised in california so all things southern and east coast related have taken me some time to get used to. when i first arrived, i noticed a different grocery store in the area. i knew nothing about it and avoided it initially. it was new and foreign to me and, frankly, in the first couple of years of being here, i was overwhelmed with new and different. had i only known what was inside that store, i would have branched out sooner!

as my friends and i began talking about our grocery shopping, the name ALDI came up over and over again. finally i decided to give it a try. i made some mistakes at first but now i am a pro. and the prices? they are so much cheaper than any other store i have found that i always shop there first for nearly everything my family needs for our meals on a weekly basis. there are many blog posts on the why behind aldi's cheap prices so i won't go into those here but i will say, it is worth the trip! i'm saving tons of money each month and i am still able to feed my family amazingly well.

if you are a first timer to ALDI, here is what you need to know.

i didn't bring a quarter my first trip. that was a mistake! you will want a shopping cart full of groceries for your trip. trust me. 

you will bag your own groceries at ALDI. it's just one way they are able to charge you less money during your trip. bring a lot of bags. you'll want to buy a lot of stuff.

everything is presented in boxes. these keeps prices down as well as people aren't continually stocking shelves. everything is easy to find and well labeled. you will love it.

school lunch shopping trip

armed with $50.00, this is the grocery cart full of products i was able to purchase at ALDI. 

it is a ton of products and there is no way i would have been able to get all the items i needed for all the school lunches at any other grocery store.

building our ALDI lunches

i had some fabulous helpers to make these lunches. my daughter (the redhead) and her two close friends came over for the afternoon and we knocked everything out in no time. normally these lunches would be made on a day to day basis but there is something to be said about doing some sunday afternoon/evening prep for the week to come. with very little work we were able to make some homemade granola bars and peanut butterscotch o's for snacks as well as get the school lunches prepared. each lunch took no time at all and if we had done any preparation ahead of time, these would have been a breeze for my kids to tackle on their own. 

cutest cooks ever!

before we got started building our lunches, we made some snack foods that will last us the whole week through. not only are these recipes delicious but they are super easy to make and will last for both a snack during school and one when they get home. the two recipes we started our prep with are peanut-butterscotch o's and homemade granola bars. we purchased all our ingredients at ALDI and made whole trays full. the girls were super excited about eating their way through these bits of deliciousness!

yep, the girls made all of these too. good thing they washed their hands first!

now that the snacks for the week were completed, the girls moved on to their lunches for day one.

ALDI school lunch day 1: turkey-cucumber wrap

here is what you will need for this lunch:

pueblo lindo flour tortillas

8 oz. happy farms cream cheese, softened

1/2 a package of stonemill essential ranch dressing mix

lunch mate oven roasted turkey breast slices

1/2 cucumber, thinly sliced
strawberries
fruit dip: 1 bag of baker's corner miniature marshmallows, 8 oz. happy farms cream cheese, softened

to begin the girls whipped 8 oz. of cream cheese with a hand mixer. once that was mixed and softened, they melted one bag of marshmallows over the stove (this step may require minimal supervision). once the marshmallows are melted, add them to the whipped cream cheese mixture and mix again with a hand mixer. cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

have the kids slice the 1/2 cucumber into thin slices. once finished, they can also cut the stems off of the strawberries. 

in another bowl, have them mix 8 oz. of softened cream cheese with 1/2 package of ranch dressing mix. 

lay out three tortillas. spread the cream cheese mixture over the tortillas in a thin coat. 

layer with cucumbers and sliced oven roasted turkey. 

roll the tortillas up into a tight ring (the kids didn't really care what their rolls looked like so i didn't stress about it either). 

slice into one inch slices and place one sliced wrap in each lunch box. 

if you have more than one child to feed, this is great for feeding three. if not, these wraps can be made for three different days in a week.

this was the girls' absolute favorite lunch and my five year old ate an entire wrap all on his own. they really are absolutely delicious and so easy to make.

happy lunch making, kiddos!

this post was sponsored by ALDI. the opinions and statements are all our own. 

these products are available while supplies last.  all products may not be available in all stores.

my fur real moments

i am a mother of five…and the owner of two very pretty cats. in that order. with five kids in the house, the cats probably don’t get the attention they deserve. they really are beautiful and incredibly low maintenance. still, with all the people in and out of my house, they sometimes get lost in the shuffle. every now and then, they stand up and beg to be noticed. in those moments i can’t help but laugh at their antics. they are like little puppies. they eat food scraps that the little kids drop, refuse to drink from a water bowl and only drink from a running faucet, love to sit on the backs of any chairs in the house and take over the kids’ backpacks as soon as they get home from school. they follow me from room to room, fight often with one another, sit on every piece of clean clothing from the dryer and cry at the door when the kids are outside playing. they are, in a word, a little odd. still, we love them and the five kids are learning a ton about caring for others by caring for them.

i speak the truth. only from the faucet.

as they follow me around my house, i will occasionally snap a picture of them doing something that makes me laugh. with all the crazy in my day, i'll always take a little laughter. as they look at me snapping their pictures, i can almost hear what their little brains are thinking. 

seriously? will i ever be able to go to the bathroom in peace?

rachael ray and the lovely people at nutrish pet food are celebrating those funny moments when you just know you are a pet owner. we have so many of those little moments in our house. with this contest, you can upload a photo of your pet doing something fun and create your own meme for your pet photo with pre-selected phrases from nutrish. head over to www.nutrish.com and start making your memes. they have their own meme generator to easily create the best possible meme and photo. each photo created will automatically enter you in the "fur real pet moments" contest with a chance to win $1500 and a year's supply of rachael ray's nutrish pet food. what? how great is that? 

this took two seconds and i'm entered to win!

we have been huge fans of rachael ray and her nutrish pet food for years now. for rachael, food equals love, whether she is cooking a meal for friends or working with pet nutrition experts to create delicious recipes for your family's furry companions. we love that the food is made with simple ingredients that our cats love and that, with every purchase, rachael gives back to pets in need. rachael's personal proceeds from sales of nutrish go to rachael's rescue...to purchase food, medical supplies and treatments for animals that need our help. if you haven't tried it already, what are you waiting for? pick some up on your next target run and see what we are raving about...and learn why winning a year's supply of pet food would be the greatest thing ever. 

head over to www.nutrish.com and make your pet meme today to enter the contest and print out a coupon for the nutrish pet food that best meets your needs. then follow nutrish on social media to see all of the great work your pet food purchases are doing for animals in need. you won't regret it!

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• facebook: http://facebook.com/nutrish and/or http://facebook.com/nutrishforcats
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