SodaStream House Party

It's been too long since I last posted!  I've kind of had writer's block.  Oh...and a job that took up a LOT of my time and energy.  But the job is gone, so now I have no excuses. 

The good news is I have more time to do fun things with my friends and my kids!  Like make and drink our own soda!

Last Saturday we hosted a SodaStream House Party.  We received the Source model and a bunch of flavors, along with the carbonation cartridge to make the fizz!  Set-up was simple and in a matter of about five minutes we were adding bubbles to everything from water to juice!

 

 

The boys and a few of their friends went first and had a great time making their own sodas and mixing and matching flavors. They tried really weird combos like rootbeer and lemon-lime.  Why?  Because their boys and they do weird things.  That rootbeer/lemon-lime combination?  Was disgusting.

 

 

Then the other moms and I all took our turns.  Our favorite flavor was Cranberry-Raspberry mixed with Lemonade.  It was light and bubbly and delicious and the SodaStream was so easy and fun to use!  All the moms agreed that the 1 liter bottles that come with the SodaStream are the perfect size.

 

One of my camera shy friends - photo by one of the other 5 camera shy friends!

 

 

 

Really bad picture of me giving a demo...fire the photographer!

Here's a video of how it works, not sure you can see it all that well, but it will give you a general idea about how the SodaStream works. Ignore the ridiculous conversation taking place as I film and try to control mother my children.  Oh...and please turn your cell phones to vibrate so you don't disturb the other viewers...it's that good.  You won't want to miss a second of this high quality video. 

 

 

 

So...we enjoyed just about everything the SodaStream has to offer.  The only negative thing I would bring up is that many of the flavors I received to try contain sucralose or Splenda.  I am not a fan of sucralose or Splenda.  But the good news is that SodaStream offers some all natural flavors that do not have the artificial sweetner, so I am looking forward to trying those.  I am a fan of sparkling juices though and I think that we can save a lot of money making our own sparkling cider and non-alcoholic mimosas using SodaStream!

 

The other great thing about SodaStream is that it is great on the environment.  Their reusable 1 liter bottles mean no more empty 2 liter bottles going in the garbage or ending up in landfills.   

 

SodaStream is definitely going to be put to good use in our home.  We already have plans to include it as part of my youngest son's b-day party and it makes an appearance every family movie night as well. 

 

I have three $20 rebate coupons left over from the party if anyone is thinking about buying one for Christmas.  Shoot me and email, I'll be happy to get the coupon to you via snail mail!

 

 

**Disclosure:  I was not compensated for this blog post.  I did receive a SodaStream kit from SodaStream and House Party to help facilitate this review.  My opinions are always honest and are my own.**

 



Ultimate Blog Party Post

I'm a little late getting this post up, but wanted to make sure I let you all know that it's time again for the Ultimate Blog Party over at 5 Minutes for Mom.  Why?  Because it rocks!  Not only do they give away a gazillion products during the week, they also give all of us bloggers a chance to find neww blogs and make new blogger friends.

This year they asked the participants to tell a little about ourselves on our blog.  So...

I am Geri.  I am Boymom.  Mom of two boys. (Sometimes three, depending on the maturity level of my husband on any given day.)  Like my header says, it's what I do.  I have two wonderfully, hilarious  pre-teen boys and an equally hilarious husband who contstantly amazes me with his wit and wisdom.  As the only female in a house full of males, I sometimes forget what it's like to be a girl. I have an obsession with Clorox Wipes, due to aiming issues in the bathroom that are beyond my comprehension.  How do you miss a bowl with such a large opening?!  Seriously!!

I also write product reviews for various family friendly products and toys here on my own blog and I am a guest contributor for product reviews at 5 Minutes for Giveaways.

When I'm not writing reviews, I am busy working to get our fledgling non-profit up and running.  I am a founding director of Helping Our Warriors, a non-profit dedicated to the support and stabilization of military families as they deal with everchanging circumstances due to their service.  Through annual retreats, we will offer these families a safe and peaceful place to bond and develop coping skills that will strengthen the family unit so they can thrive and succeed no matter the situation.  We are excited to be up and fully running this year as we work to get a full Board of Directors in place and embark on some major fundraising events.

Finally, we just moved to a new town, so of course I had to start a new blog about our life here, right?  I just got at home in {Boise} going, so you can stop by there once in a while to find out all about our new home and the people and places in our new community.  Okay...I said stop by, which you can do, but I still have to get some posts together, so be patient.  I started a new job a few weeks ago, so it's taking all my brain power and energy to deal with training the last few weeks so y blogs have suffered.  But I'm done training this week, so I'll have more time to get caught up with posts and such! 

So that's me!  I hope you'll stop by once in awhile, introduce yourself and leave a witty or insightful comment!  I'll try to do the same for you!  In the meantime, I'm gonna put some party music on and enjoy UBP 2012 with 5 Minutes for Moms!  Join me!!   

Goalforit Review

Well, here we are...the beginning of a New Year.  As usual, I am procrastinating having my yearly internal debate about what goals to set for myself and my family so we can feel like we are making progress.  I used to be way more goal-oriented than I am.  Something about adding kids to the equation really threw me off my game and in the 12 years since the first one was born, I haven't fully regained my footing when it comes to planning, goal-setting and achieving life dreams.  So I am grateful for the opportunity to review tools and programs that help me as I search for ways to get on more solid ground when it comes to training my children and retraining myself to set goals in order to achieve the successes we seek in life. 

Goalforit is a great new online resource that provides a variety of free solutions for personal success that are easy to use and can help bring more focus, balance and fulfillment into everyday living.  Did I say FREE?  YES!!  I did!!  Goalforit is free and the sign-up process takes about 30 seconds, so I was liking the program right from the start.  Free and Easy?  How often does that combination come up in life?!?  Okay...back to the review...

The program allows users to create personalized charts to help track their progress in various areas of their lives. For example, my oldest son has decided that he wants to work on being healthier this year.  So we sat down and made a chart that would help him see what he needs to work on each day to develop healthy habits.  It looks like this:

He can check his own progress and we set it up with a daily email reminder so that if either one of us forgets to check the chart ( with his ADD and my hormonally induced "brain fog" we need all the help we can get!) we will get a gentle cyber nudge to keep us on track. 

I also set up a Chore Chart for Little Man.  The chore charts are customizable so you can create your own chores that aren't already listed on the site and there are fun stickers the kids can use to check off the chores they've done.  Again, parents can set up email reminders or print the charts out so kids have a visual reminder. 

The Chore Chart can help teach kids, tweens & teens many important lessons, including:

• Responsibility; A Chore Chart is an ideal way to help your kids feel like they are making a contribution to their family by doing their part around the house.
• Understanding right from wrong; Setting behavior goals is an important way to help children strengthen their character and judgment.
• Healthy Habits; Teaching good habits involving nutrition and physical activity are the cornerstone of prevent obesity in children and adolescents.
• Money Matters; The optional point system teaches children three important lessons for managing money; earning, spending and saving.

A unique feature that Goalforit has incorporated into its program is the ability to include friends and family in your plans through the use of the community settings  Simply add the people you want to be able to view your progress and they can check in to see how you are doing and help cheer you on as you work toward your goals.  I can see where this would be a great tool to help  a person stay motivated with really big challenges, like weight loss or training for a marathon.  Nothing like accountability and a cheering section to help spur you on when you are feeling a little less than positive, right?!  If you're doing a group thing that includes friends and family in different locations you can all post your progress right to your Facebook pages to keep everybody updated and motivated. 

Overall I think that Goalforit is a great online tool. And since it doesn't cost anything to try, my family and I will be using it over the next few months to try to bring some order and balance to our otherwise chaotic lives.  Here's to a successful year of reaching our goals!

**Disclosure: This is a compensated post, written on behalf of GoalForIt. However, I am never under any obligation to write a positive review, and the opinions posted here are always mine and mine alone.**