Zephyr Hill

A Family Blog

Barnacle Baby Organic Cotton Clothing Review & Giveaway

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When we hear the word barnacle, most of us imagine a sticky little crustacean. Sherry Abousalem, the creative mind behind Barnacle Baby Boutique, uses it in a super cute way to call to mind the closeness we share with our children.

Wanting to use only the best and most responsible materials, Barnacle Baby bodysuits are sewn with 100% organic combed cotton to ensure the fibers are chemical-free. They are made in the USA and cotton is sourced from the local economy.

All of Sherry’s designs are screen printed using sustainable, water-based inks. The design I chose to review says “Imported From Heaven, Handle with Care, By Mommy & Daddy, Inc.”

On her website, Sherry writes “We are striving to have your little barnacle inherit an Earth that is sustainably thriving,” and her business model certainly lives up to that goal.

Our Barnacle Baby suit has washed and held up quite nicely, and still has a nice and smooth feel. The inks are bright and crisp. Camille is 7 months old and just under 16 pounds. The 3-6 month suit we received fits her perfectly right now.

Limited sizes are available right now, but will be available in the future from newborn up to 18 months. And check out Sherry’s newest design:

I think this would make a lovely baby shower gift for a “natural-minded” mother in your life!

Shop Barnacle Baby’s organic cotton bodysuits
for $26 each

Connect with Barnacle Baby on social media: 

Facebook | Instagram

 

 

Steeped Single-Serve Coffee Review and Giveaway

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If I didn’t have nine children and a packed homeschooling schedule, I’d probably visit a coffee shop every day. There I would sit, for an hour or so, reading recipe books, Far Side cartoons, and H.G. Wells. The next best thing, I suppose, is to enjoy a cup of coffee while blogging at home. And it’s really nice when you don’t have to turn on a coffee maker or get out the French press. In the past, the single-serve answer was instant coffee granules, but I don’t think much needs to be said here about how disappointing the flavor can be.

No need to put on your thinking cap, though, because Steeped Coffee answered the challenge. This California roaster has rolled out specialty coffees in convenient single-serve bags. Read on for my full review of the samples we received, plus don’t miss the giveaway for your chance to win two boxes of Steeped Coffee!

Our sampler included:

  • Sunrise Blend (light roast)
  • California Blend (medium roast)
  • Odyssey Blend (dark roast)
  • Driftwood Blend (French roast)
  • Eventide Decaf

Whether you’re at home or on the go, Steeped Coffee is a simple way to enjoy a great cup of java with just a mug and some hot water. It’s ideal for camping and traveling, too.

I love the concept of being able to brew just one specialty cup of coffee. Coffee pots take more time and often result in waste; plus there’s that horrible burned flavor which permeates the coffee that stays in the glass carafe for too long. My French press is nice, but it makes several cups at a time and is difficult to clean. And not everyone can afford a “K-Cup” machine and the pricey pods.

How Does it Taste?

True to my continental roots, Driftwood (French roast) was my favorite, but even I was pleasantly surprised by the full flavor of Eventide Decaf, which I can enjoy in the evenings. Sunrise and California were too light for my personal tastes.

At the age of ten I was already sipping coffee alongside my mother and father in the mornings. Starting young like that is a Southern thing, I think. Over the years, I’ve become very snobby choosy about coffee, and would say that the best cup I can get right now comes from my local coffee shop. Just a hair under that would be fresh-ground coffee out of my French Press. How does Steeped Coffee measure up in terms of taste? It’s very close to what my French Press can deliver, but not quite, so I think that’s a good testament to its quality. After all, it’s quick to prepare and doesn’t require a grinder or a barista. Mission accomplished, no?

How Do They Do It?

I wondered how Steeped delivers flavor and depth without using traditional coffee prep methods. Their coffees are roasted in small batches using precision grinding. Once that’s done, the grounds are nitro-sealed to keep oxygen out, and then tucked inside an ultrasonic sealed filter bag. When fully immersed in hot water, the end result is a near-perfect cup of coffee with minimal effort on your part.

To prepare a cup of Steeped Coffee, simply pour hot water over the filter bag. It’s pre-measured for you. There’s a little string and tag attached, just like a tea sachet. After about five minutes, your coffee is ready to sip. The Steeped Coffee packs keep for months and are easy to store.

If you need any more reasons to give Steeped Coffee a try, their business ethos is truly impressive.

  • Guilt-free packaging uses renewable and compostable materials; packages are printed with water-based ink.
  • Made in the USA: roasting and manufacturing all take place in California.
  • All Steeped Blends are ethically sourced; all wages exceed Fair Trade minimums
  • Steeped is certified: Kosher, Organic, Non-GMO and Vegan

If you’re a coffee lover who loves to try new things, see how you can get started with a coffee subscription for just $14.00. There’s a free trial offer you don’t want to miss, either. And then be sure to follow Steeped on Instagram and Facebook!

Before I share the details about the giveaway, here are a few things I learned while preparing and enjoying my samples of Steeped Coffee.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Your Steeped Coffee

  • Pour hot water over the Steeped filter bag.
  • Make sure you agitate the bag a little, side to side or up and down
  • Steep for 5 minutes minimum before enjoying
  • Let the bag float in the mug while you drink. It will develop its full flavor potential, and there won’t be any bitterness, like you might experience with a tea sachet.

Giveaway:  CLOSED

 

BALM! Baby Skin Care Review

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There are lots of natural products out there vying for our attention. So why choose BALM! Baby, available via Taylor’s Naturals? I’ve always felt like it’s the total package, so to speak. Malena, the creative force behind this small business is heavily invested in the cloth community. She’s not just providing products, but has consistently offered support and encouragement over the years. Her products work, come packaged in really cool containers, and many contain locally-sourced ingredients from the Big Island in Hawaii.

There are other perks, too, like customized formulations if someone’s allergic or sensitive. Malena prioritizes eco-friendly packaging, and shipping with recycled and/or plastic free supplies.

She sent us an assortment of complimentary products to try:

Herbal Dusting Powder (Talc Free)

Looking for an all-natural baby powder alternative? BALM! Baby delivers with a  skin-soothing, gentle talc-free formula. Containing just fours simple ingredients (arrowroot, organic corn starch, kaolin clay and an herbal blend), this dusting powder will deodorize and soothe any part of baby’s body (or yours!) that you can want to keep fresh and dry.

Choose unscented or lavender.

Butter Lotion

BALM’s Baby Butter contains nourishing oils from a Big Island organic farm. The consistency and fragrance are heavenly, and it goes on without a heavy or greasy feel. I like that it’s so versatile, too. With cocoa butter, shea butter, olive oil infused calendula & chamomile, Hawaiian coconut oil, Hawaiian macadamia nut oil, corn starch, and vitamin e T-50, it’s loaded with natural skin-calming elements.

I’ve been using it like crazy for the chapped cheeks, lips and hands that nearly everyone in the family has been battling this winter. We’ve been hard hit in the Midwest with severe storms and dry, frigid days.

Lots of options are available in this one: Unscented, Calming Lavender, Vanilla Grapefruit, Little Vanilla Bean, Candy Mint and Sweet Little Orange.

Eczema Calmer

I’m thrilled to have discovered Malena’s Eczema Calmer; it’s going to be stocked in my medicine cabinet from now on. Erik (my 6-year-old) gets itchy, red patches on his hands, his arms, and the backs of his legs. Eczema Calmer takes care of the itching and the redness within 24 hours, every single time. It contains extra virgin olive oil, organic, raw cocoa butter, calendula, chamomile, comfrey & rosemary, candelula wax, chickweed, tocopherol ( vitamin e T-50) and is available in lavender or unscented.

 

Spray that Bottom!

This is a nifty cleaning spray that you can use on wipes or directly on the skin. No fillers or unnecessary ingredients here – only the things that work: witch hazel, extra virgin olive oil, neem oil, lavender, orange & tea tree essential oils & vitamin E. The light, pleasant-smelling formula is cloth safe, but certainly not limited to cleaning and moisturizing your baby’s skin. Try it for cracked feet, sunburns, dry lips, diaper rash, razor burn, eczema, bug bites, newborns peeling skin, itchy cradle cap, postpartum discomfort, scrapes, cuts, bruises, hemorrhoids, dry hands, armpits, burns, etc. Just spray and leave on.

You can wash out and re-use the can for whatever you like. I put water in mine and spray the cats who like to jump on our window screens. 😉

Where to Find BALM! Baby Products

Taylor’s (get free Priority shipping on orders over $50)

The Amazon Welcome Box: Get $35 in Free Baby Products

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This post contains affiliate links.

You may have heard about Amazon’s “Welcome Box” with free stuff for new mothers and babies. Is it for real? Yes! I just received my box of samples and full size products worth about $35 just the other day, and I’ll let you know how to claim one as well.

Here’s what you have to do to be eligible:

  1. Be an Amazon Prime member
  2. Create a Baby Registry and complete the Checklist
  3. Have a purchase of $10 or more from your registry (you can buy it or someone else can buy it for you)
  4. After following the steps above you’ll see a link to “claim” your Welcome Box in the Baby Registry. You can then add it to your shopping cart. Note: The claim link won’t become live until the $10 purchase mentioned above actually ships.

The total at checkout will show as $0.00.

You’ll be given an estimated ship date, just like you would with any Amazon order.

My box arrived within a week. It contained an assortment of full sized and sample sized products from different brands:

I’m really happy with the variety and quality, with only one exception. There weren’t any diapers at all – disposable or cloth! This is one product that you’ll use more than any other on your baby, so it seems odd that Amazon doesn’t include any in the Welcome Box. Even a couple of diaper coupons, at the least, would be a logical addition to the mix.

Have you used Amazon’s Baby Registry before? If you’ve claimed the Welcome Box, let me know what you got!

A Fun Way to Manage Your Child’s Screen Time

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Update: ScreenCoin is no longer sold.

Most parents realize at some point that screen time for children is something that must be managed. But just how to do this in a fair and consistent way is the challenging part. Here are some of the problems we’ve encountered, and I bet you have, too!

  • Arguments about how much time is left
  • Begging/whining for more time
  • Fights with siblings regarding screen time

Screen Coin is a simple system which was launched this year by parents to help bring clarity and peace to this whole process. It’s a fun, tactile tool that promotes budgeting, communication and time management. The husband and wife team behind Screen Coin sent us two complimentary sets to test drive with our children ages 8 and up.

Your purchase of Screen Coins includes a set of 6 in the color of your choice, a two-sided tray and a link to the customizable family contract. Regularly priced at $14.99, Screen Coins are temporarily on sale for $9.99.

Screen Coins are made on demand, using the latest 3D printing technology.

Putting down a book is pretty simple; wresting your child away from a computer game is a lot more difficult. It’s a uniquely modern problem that needs to be faced in a creative new way.  Electronic devices are tools, but they aren’t easy to put down like other tools (for instance, a hammer). There’s a temptation to just keep going long after you’ve finished what you sat down to do. We parents are guilty of this, too (Facebook, cough cough)!

So let’s look at how Screen Coins work:

The System

When your new set of Screen Coins arrives in the mail, there will also be a link to the Contract Designer, plus a password.

Answer a few questions online and customize the contract as it applies to your family, including details like how many minutes you assign to each coin and special rules like “Arguing when all the coins are finished for the day can result in the loss of coins.”  After making the contract, a printable PDF will arrive in your inbox. I strongly encourage you to include your child in the contract-making process, so that there’s a clear understanding of the terms. Everyone signs, and you’re on your way!

When your child sits down with a device, set the tray of screen coins beside him. Depending upon age, briefly go over the terms and then start a timer. You can keep track of time with pretty much anything – your SmartPhone, the oven time, a kitchen timer, etc. As time goes by, used coins are moved to the other side. When the coins run out, screen time is over!

The Results

The advantages of the Screen Coin system became apparent from the get-go:

  • The contract eliminated misunderstandings. Everyone knew what the terms were and they had signed their name.
  • When the coins were used up, there were no arguments because there was a consequence (you’ll lose coins for next time!)
  • They were helping to manage their own time instead of Mama and Daddy playing policemen.
  • They actually like the system. The written rules, the colorful coins, etc. This is a huge plus!
  • The coins help children, especially younger ones, visualize their time in a concrete way.

One day, you won’t be there to monitor your children’s time on devices. And you may worry that without any accountability they will sit in their apartment for hours every day playing video games. Unless you start teaching them now. A system like Screen Coin that gets your child heavily involved in the management process is crucial for instilling self-control.

Using Screen Coins for Different Age Groups

Susanna is 7 and Samuel is 8. One of the biggest advantages I noticed is how Screen Coins help demystify time. “You have 1 hour” can be hard to understand, and it’s no wonder that a child might argue when time runs out. “Are you sure that was really an hour, Mama??”

Along those same lines, I found that smaller time increments work better with little children. It’s easier to grasp what 10 minutes feel like rather than 30 minutes.

Benjamin is 10. He’s in what I would call the Screen Coin sweet spot, because he fully understands both time and adding/subtracting, and is also mature enough to be heavily involved in the whole system, from the creation of the contract to setting his own timer and moving coins over independently. After I explained the rules, there was no checking in needed. When the timer went off at 1 hour, I poked my head in the school room and saw him move the last coin over and shut the computer. Success!

Joseph is 15. Although not in the target Screen Coin age range, he wanted to try the system because, well, it was new and everyone else was doing it! As a teenager, he feels capable of tracking his own time using his watch. However, if we decide to let them start earning coins, Joseph said he would like to use Screen Coins so he could have something tangible to keep track of it.

Samuel and Benjamin came up with a neat idea using Screen Coins. They often like to split their turns between two devices – for instance, 30 minutes on the PC and 30 minutes on the Kindle. They traded coins so they each have 3 green and 3 red. This helps them to visualize their time increments for different devices.

Be sure to give lots of encouragement and high fives as you see them using the system and abiding by the rules!

Suggestions/Room for Improvement? 

  • There may be things in the contract that don’t apply to your situation, but need to be filled in. For instance, start and stop times. Ours change every week because of having a large family and a flexible homeschool schedule. Andy assured me that Screen Coin is open to feedback and the contract design is certainly open to adjustment in the future.
  • More than one set of Screen Coins may need to be purchased for children who are allowed to earn additional coins beyond the set of 6.
  • When using the system for young children, you do have to stay on top of the time. That means resetting the timer over and over for each coin, or setting it for the full time and then checking in regularly with verbal cues so they can move the coins over.

Do you have any thoughts to share on the Screen Coin system, or on monitoring devices in general?