On July 14, 1965, the American space probe Mariner 4 flew by Mars, sending back photographs of the planet.

It's Time Out Tuesday again!

Remember how I told you last week about Best Children's Movies' Time Out Tuesday? Well, guess what? It's Tuesday again. This week the featured film is "The Snow Walker". Head on over and check it out!

The Adventures of Hashbrown Winters

Oh, I am so excited! My friend Heidi--her husband has been working hard on his first children's book: The Adventures of Hashbrown Winters. And now it's done. And it's awesome. And I wanted to help spread the word! Go pick up a copy. Isn't it time for some family bonding over a book? I think so!

Affordable Baby Organics - It's a Giveaway!

Hi all! I just wanted to let you know how lucky I am! I have the pleasure of working with Amanda over at "Baby Organics at Affordable Prices!" She is generously offering some of her awesome organic cotton baby clothes for me to give away on my blog. Woohoo! Let's take a look at what I am giving away:

Papaya Orange Organic Onesie


Natural Organic Cotton BabyLegs

If you click on the images, it will take you right to Baby Organics to get all the specs for each product! These are my favorites. I love the Organic Cotton Onesie in papaya--mostly because I love bright colors. I chose the Natural BabyLegs because I really think they make the papaya stand out.

Ok, now for the nitty gritty. To enter, you must do at least one of the following:

• Link to Baby Organics (as a hyperlink) in a blog post with your favorite product from the selection at Baby Organics. Tell your blog readers why it's your favorite. Leave me a link to your post in the comments.
  


• Let me know (in the comments, of course), who you hope to win this for. Is it for your own child? A grandchild? As you may know--my daughter is almost 20, and while there is no grandchild in my near future--many, many, many of her friends are getting married. I suspect babies are still in my near future--but since my daughter isn't even engaged--hopefully it is just all her friends. Actually, at least 4 of her friends are new parents or are pregnant. So, as long as you have someone in mind for these awesome organic baby clothes--I am ok with that!


• Link to Baby Organics in a tweet and let me know in the comments.

• Ok--for the last way to win--let me know what you think is better--cloth diapers or disposable diapers--and why. I've used both. When my daughter was born, I used a great diaper service in Vegas. It was way better than trying to wash my own (which I did for a short while--and let me tell you, those diapers are the best dust rags I have now!). With my son, we'd already moved to rural Nevada, and disposable diapers worked better for me because I did not have access to a service. I was concerned about how hot I could clean the diapers at, and the use of water in the desert, and so on... Anyway, I want to know what you think!

I am running this giveway until Monday, July 20th. You have until midnight PDT to enter. Let the giveaway begin!

Oh! And I wanted to let you know that in the next 2-3 weeks, Baby Organics is adding Organic Baby Slings and Organic Baby Bedding to the site. See? It's not as hard to be green as you might expect!

Oooohhhhh...and lucky you! For all my readers, Baby Organics is offering a 10% discount. Just enter coupon code "Mreow10" when you check out.

Perky Blogger!

Thanks to Yonca over at Yonca's Kitchen for the Perky Blogger Award she graced me with:

I am passing on the award to some of my favorite bloggers:

JoAnna at The Adventures of Saia and Chago
The Audacity of an Optimistic Pessimist
Laurie at Guessing All the Way (Tales from a Clueless Mom)
Daisy at Dusty Barks

After grabbing please make a post of this award on your blog then link the person who gave the award to you. Also, please pass this award on to bloggers you choose.

Have a healthy and happy weekend!

Bento, Anyone?

For the last couple of days, I've been thinking about lunches. School starts again next month, and I am trying to figure out how to make lunches interesting for both my husband and my son. And help keep us within our grocery budget. To that end, I have been researching bento lunches. Last year I was looking at the laptop lunch system for my son, but he just wasn't interested. This year, though, we've been looking at stainless steel bentos (and tiffins) and he is much more interested. Especially since he now realizes that this is what kids his age in other countries do for lunch. He's all for being different!

My husband will take whatever I pack, but it makes more sense to make complementary lunches rather than two different things--which is why I needed my son to decide he was up for trying it. We are spending time this summer testing recipes--Just Bento has a ton of them. We are also trying to narrow down which box we are going to start with, although I am sure we will end up with a couple just because of the different ways you can use them.

Here are some of the options we are looking at:



We are still looking, but my son is leaning towards the tiffin box (2-tier stainless steel). I am excited about not having to pack ziploc bags (NOT an option in our previous lunch incarnations), and also about the variety (this is my own fault--it is just way easy to make a pb&j, stick in some fruit and a drink and be good to go).

Some fun bento sites:
Adventures in Bentomaking
Just Bento
Cooking Cute
JB Bentos
Lunch Bucket Bento
My Bento Diet
Obento Baby
Be My Bento
Bentobabe

I hope I've inspired you to be more creative with your lunches!