cold? what cold?!

I mentioned in a recent blog post how we try to keep our kids healthy and how they have never had an ear infection - ever! Well, that doesn't mean that we don't get sick. A cold bug passed through our family of 4 last week like wild fire. This is how it went down:

Saturday: we attended 6 year old's birthday party of our friends who live about an hour away from us. They told us that they were battling colds for over a week, but were better. They even went to the doctor and were given the go-ahead to have the party. However, the day after, this is what happened to our family:

First victim on Sunday afternoon: our 8 month old preemie
Second victim on Sunday night: Me!
Third victim on Monday morning: my dear husband
Fourth victim on Tuesday evening: our 2 year old

How could this be, you may ask? We all take Shaklee supplements- excellent health insurance.

Well, the truth is that you CAN get sick, even with strong immune systems through Shaklee.

The difference however, is that we were all over our colds within a couple of days of them occurring. When we were exposed, our bodies were able to defend and bounce back quickly. We all continued to take our usual vitamins but when we started showing symptoms, I took a few extra things like Nutriferon and Defend and Resist Complex. We also increased the amount of Vitamin C that my husband, toddler and I were taking.

We were nervous about the baby, because he was born 6 weeks early and had respiratory issues in the NICU. This was his first big cold. We decided to take both boys into their pediatrician on Wed. to have them checked out. The doctor said that the baby's lungs already sounded clear - like he never had a cold. And he said that our toddler would probably battle this for 10-14 days and would have a fever come and go.

But he hasn't! He has gotten better every day since, and his fever never returned! (and the baby never even ran a fever)

And to top it off, our friends called us to tell us that they all tested positive for STREP THROAT!!!

When I heard that, I immediately called the pediatrician to see if he thought we should have throat cultures done. My toddler and I did just to be safe, and we were absolutely fine. whew!

So to recap, we were exposed to strep throat over the weekend and the end result for each of us was a cold that lasted no more then a few days. (for my husband, it never actually matured into much at all)

We were all very thankful that it did not turn into a secondary infection and we have all been well on the mend.

Thank you, Shaklee!!!

With as many things that are still going around now, I hope you take care of yourself and consider extra health insurance through good vitamin supplements. We are grateful for them:)

Thanks for reading and have a good and very healthy week ahead!

Rebecca

Happy Earth Day!!

It's Earth Day today! This is a short video from Shaklee's CEO, Roger Barnett on earth day.

Also, foxnews.com put out a great article yesterday about 'greening your baby'. They talk about going organic, diapering, foods to eat, things for your child's room and cleaners. Here are a few highlights from what the article said about cleaners and chemicals in the home:

"Go into your cabinets and throw out everything that has a long list of ingredients you can't understand," said Kligler.

Once you've accomplished that task, it's time buy some new supplies.

"Go for environmentally friendly products," said Greene. "Studies have shown during pregnancy the use of certain cleaning products can lead to a higher risk of asthma."

Greene, who's a father of four, practices what he preaches. He told FoxNews.com that his family uses cleaning products from the Shaklee Corporation, a company that has been producing natural cleaning products for the last five decades. Shaklee's Get Clean household line offers everything from disinfecting wipes to dryer sheets, which are all made from "pure" ingredients.

Shaklee is on a mission to create 50,000 healthier homes!

So, if you have been considering trying Shaklee products, now is really the best time to do it! In honor of Earth Day, Shaklee has some wonderful promotions going right now (the best I have seen yet!) which include:

FREE MEMBERSHIP with only a $30 MN order! Members save 15% on all products ALWAYS! (no annual fees!) You can read more about that Here

And starting today, you can get the limited edition Shaklee Get Clean® Healthy Home Pack! For a limited time, new Shaklee customers can get a very special selection of Get Clean products that includes:

• Basic H2® (16 oz)
• Two Spray Bottles
• Get Clean Super Microfiber Cleaning Cloths
• Get Clean Dish Wash Liquid Concentrate
• Get Clean Fresh Laundry Concentrate (32 oz)
• Shaklee Energy™ Chews

This Healthy Home pack only costs $30 which will also get you the free lifetime membership where you would always save the 15% on all orders! It is a great deal:)

And for current or new members, you can also take advantage of the Green Bundle where you can buy a bottle of Basic H2 and a 3 pack of spray bottles and you can get a super microfiber cleaning cloth for FREE. The total cost is only $17.25 member price.

Basic H2 is my absolute favorite cleaner because it works so well on so many things, is very safe for our entire family and the environment and it actually saves us money because it's so concentrated! You can see how I use that along with only 2 other Shaklee cleaners to clean my entire house on my blog post that I wrote about Detoxing My Home.

For ordering information, you can go Here.

BTW - Shaklee isn't the only company with great offers and specials for earth day. Lowes is giving away 1 million trees today! How great!!

Thanks again for reading! I hope you have a wonderful Earth Day, Easter Weekend and a healthy week ahead!

Rebecca

National Garlic Day! (who knew there was such a day??)

That's right, we have a day for garlic of all things - April 19th! I actually love garlic. Not by itself of course, but in food that I eat. I am always adding it to things that I cook. Fresh is best, but when I don't have that on hand, a good shake from the shaker does pretty well in a pinch.

Did you know that garlic has been used medicinally for thousands of years? I didn't until I started researching it for this post. It has been known to help in the prevention of heart disease, cancer, colds and flu. It can help lower blood pressure and also cholesterol levels and it helps to reduce the buildup of plaque in the arteries. I have even heard that it can help treat acne, warts and toothaches!

90% of garlic comes from California! I have a friend who is from the garlic capitol of the world, Gilroy, CA, so I know she will be excited to read this post:) I have actually driven through Gilroy, and it really does smell like garlic!

Which brings me to my next point. Many people shy away from garlic because of the smell. I have found that if I put a little bit of Basic H2 on my hands or just wash my hands with this hand wash concentrate, after handling garlic, my hands don't smell at all.

Shaklee makes a wonderful garlic product that gives you all of the wonderful effects of garlic along with the antioxidant effects of rosemary and spearmint. Some people take it to help with allergy issues.

Do you have any garlic tips to add or recipes you like to add it to?

Thanks for reading and have a healthy week!

Rebecca

Dust, Kitchen Disasters and Crayons! (oh my!)

We moved back to the midwest almost 3 years ago from the west coast, where my husband did his schooling. When we were living in California, we didn't have a ton of money and owned a lot of Ikea furniture. Nothing against Ikea, but I was really looking forward to us settling down and actually having some furniture that we didn't have to put together ourselves! Well, I got my wish when we moved here. I fell in love with our bedroom furniture the minute I saw it.


The rich color of the wood is so beautiful. That is, until we actually got it home and we saw how fast it showed dust! ugh! I tried several products, but they all had a waxy buildup, harsh fumes, and really didn't seem to work well at all. I tried just using a cloth or duster with no product, but all that did was move the dust around the room to resettle back onto the furniture. After we detoxed our home over the summer however, we realized that our favorite Basic H2 organic cleaner was great at dusting. I couldn't believe how well it worked for this. Before, I had to dust just about every day. But with the Basic H2, I just put a little of the window cleaner (1-2 drops to 16 oz. of water) on a cloth and wipe down the furniture. I only dust a few times a month now, if that! It actually repels dust! So cool!

As an experiment, I let the dust really build up on this night stand to try to get a good before picture. Dust is a hard thing to take pictures of! :)
And here is the after once I wiped it down with a little Basic H2:This is also an after picture. I love how the Basic H2 really shines the furniture, without leaving any film, fume or chemical behind. It doesn't just move the dust around, but actually takes it away and keeps it away longer.


Before I found Basic H2 to dust with, I had sworn I would never buy dark colored furniture again. But last summer we bought some new furniture for our family room. Here is a picture of one of the end tables. So easy to dust and keep the dust off. (as well as the little finger prints that tend to show up from my toddler:) I wasn't worried about the dust issue anymore. I was confident that Basic H2 would take care of it and it has.

I also had another cooking disaster on my stovetop recently. I always like to make the most of my disasters by demonstrating how well Scour Off works to clean things like this.
I really love this product and one little canister will last you 1-3 years!!! It is actually made of cherry pits so it smells almost good enough to eat....almost:) Here's the before:
And the after:
All I used was a little of the Scour Off with water on my washable microfiber sponge and it came off pretty easily. Again, without the harsh fumes or chemicals.
Last week I told you about our Green Getaway to Wisconsin. During that trip, we visited with my parents and my mom gave my toddler some pretty awesome no-roll type of crayons. Well, the day after we got home, we hadn't unpacked everything and he found the crayons in one of the bags we had left out. You can maybe guess what happened next... yep, our little artist was at it again. This time on the window sill, walls, floor and even the carpet! I don't have any pictures of the carpet because my husband cleaned it up before I even saw it. He used the degreaser bottle of the Basic H2 and it came right up! (and it was a deep purple color on our cream colored carpet!) But I do have some before and afters of the other areas:

Before:

and after I used the degreaser (1 1/4 tsp. of Basic H2 to 16 oz of water) of Basic H2 with my microfiber sponge

Here's a before of the wall:
and here is the after. I used the Basic H2 degreaser again with the microfiber sponge.
Here is a before of the window sill. (we still have plastic on the windows:)

and the after:
And here is the last one of the floor:

And after. Again, just using the Basic H2 degreaser and microfiber sponge. The sponge is washable, so you can get a lot of uses from it.


As you can see, I have been busy cleaning lately! I am happy to share my cleaning adventures and tips with you.

And if you are interested in any of these products, Shaklee has a wonderful free membership special running right now for Earth Day. It is the best I have seen so far. You can get a free lifetime Shaklee membership with only a $30 MN order! Members save 15% on all products always. And Shaklee always carries a 100% money back guarantee on all products. Since we switched brands to Shaklee cleaners, we have found that we really have saved money on these type of products because Shaklee cleaners are so concentrated. I really love using Shaklee cleaners, which is why I love sharing them with you. If you would like to try a sample of the Basic H2 that I mentioned, please let me know and I would be happy to send you one to you. If you are interested in a Shaklee membership, please remember to ask about my new member specials too:)

Thanks for reading and have a great and healthy week! Oh, and happy spring cleaning too! What spring cleaning projects are you working on? I would love to hear:)

Rebecca

Our Green Vacation

Green Hotel

If you are looking for a great midwest family get away, you have to check out the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva, WI. I had a music therapy conference there last week and I was blown away! My husband and 2 young children went with, and we decided to stay in Timber Ridge, which was a separate building with a HUGE water park! They only have suites in this hotel, which was awesome and very affordable. The conference rate was only $109/night plus the $15 resort fee and taxes. Very reasonable and VERY nice! Here are a few pictures I took in our room.
It was great having a fully stocked kitchen. We picked up a few groceries the first day and we were able to eat breakfast and a few lunches here. Very nice to work around naptime!

My parents, niece and brother even came to visit one of the nights and it was great to just order a pizza and visit in our room after having fun at the water park that day.

The water park was so nice and it was so BIG! There was something for everyone. We mostly stayed in the toddler area, which my 2 year old absolutely loved. They also had big slides for the big kids, a lazy river and a lot more. There was also a food court in the water park area, so you could literally stay there all day if you wanted to.

Timber Ridge also had tons of kid activities going on throughout each day. There are also riding stables and petting farm. And for the adults, the Grand Geneva has a spa and golf course. The grounds were beautiful and my family will definitely make another trip there someday.

One of the things that really blew me away about his hotel, was that it was a Green hotel and water park. Here are some of the facts I pulled from their website about that:

Travel Green-certified

Timber Ridge is proud to be a green-certified hotel and Wisconsin’s first green water park. As a travel Green Wisconsin member Timber Ridge has earned 70 points, more than double the required 30 points for certification. Travel Green Wisconsin is a voluntary program that reviews, certifies and recognizes tourism businesses and organizations that have made a commitment to reducing their environmental impact. Specifically, the program encourages participants to evaluate their operations, set goals and take specific actions towards environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Travel Green recognized some of Timber Ridge's best practices such as: Fans in water park push heat from the ceiling downward, reducing consumption 11-18% Low flow showerheads, and toilets are installed Cooking oil goes through a micro filtration process, which reduces oil used by 50% Bird and wildlife sanctuaries on property Protected wetlands on property Energizer System that allows all electrical appliances to run on an energy efficent mode when guests are not present in room Above all, the Travel Green Wisconsin program is designed to protect the beauty and vitality of Wisconsin's landscape and natural resources. Wisconsin's natural resources, wildlife and cultural diversity are among its most important tourism assets. Efforts to preserve them for future generations serve the best interest of Wisconsin travelers, as well as its tourism industry and the state's overall economy. Visit travelgreenwisconsin.com And don't forget about the awesome FREE membership special that Shaklee is running right now with only a $30 order. Please let me know if you'd like more information. Thanks for reading and have a great week! Rebecca

Free Shaklee Membership for Earth Day!

EARTH DAY SPECIAL from Shaklee!!!

This is the best free membership promotion I have seen yet!

I am really excited to share it with you!

FREE SHAKLEE MEMBERSHIP with only a $30 order!!

A Shaklee membership gives you…

15% discount (off retail prices) on all product purchases always

Special promotions, offers and discounts

Unconditional money-back guarantee

Access to MyShaklee.com, Shaklee’s center for health and wellness news and information from Shaklee’s Health Sciences Team, and product experts

And there are NO MINIMUMS to maintain your membership!

SHAKLEE WANTS TO HELP 50,000 FAMILIES GET HEALTHIER IN THE NEXT 7 WEEKS!

I am happy to share this with you in order to help them do that!

Something to consider: one family deciding to convert to Shaklee's non-toxic biodegradable household cleaners keeps the equivalent of 5,000 bottles of conventional "ready-to-use" glass cleaner out of landfills. What would it mean if 50,000 families did the same? What a wonderful way to help our Earth as we celebrate Earth Day!

If you are considering becoming a new distributor, you can get more too. Contact me for more info.

Click here for product and ordering info.

And be sure to ask me about my new member specials!

Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!

Rebecca