While you’re there, don’t forget to check out their Sales Section where they have up to 70% off sale items!
Yumi Kim: Clothes on Sale 15% Off + Free Shipping!
Eureka Bagless Sunflower Yellow Convertible Vacuum Only $13.99
This Eureka Bagless Sunflower Yellow Convertible Vacuum is one of many great items on sale at Best Buy! They are having their Labor Day Sale Friday (8/31) through Monday (9/3) only!
This vacuum is convertible which means that it can be used as a handheld mini vacuum or it can be used upright. You can get this adorable and handy vacuum for only $13.99 shipped! This would be ideal to keep in your classroom, for a dorm room, or to have upstairs to keep from lugging your regular vacuum! Go and check out the other great mark downs they have. Don’t forget, this sale ends Monday!
Working Mother Magazine: Free 1 Year Subscription
Yay! It’s back! I know a lot of people absolutely love Working Mother Magazine– myself included — so I’m excited to share that there is another free 6-issue (1 year) subscription available! Sign up for your free Working Mother magazine here!
Don’t worry, there’s no credit card required and you won’t ever be billed.
If you got this for yourself last time it was available, why not order a subscription now for a friend?
No More Rack: Deals and Free Shipping!
Woot! Woot! Good news!!! No More Rack always has great deals but right now they have a BUNCH of deals and are offering free shipping. It’s rare to find an online site that offers free shipping without a minimum purchase! This free shipping will only last for the next six hours so hurry and check out their site to see if there’s anything you want or have been meaning to buy.
- First of all, make sure you sign up with an account on No More Rack.
- Then, check a few times a day and look for the Purple Highlighted Insanity Deal that will pop up. Only a few will be available. But they guarantee that over the course of a month, 1,000 of each item will go up for sale. If they sell out before you get a chance to grab it, keep checking back because they will pop up again!
Here are some great deals I spotted while glancing at the site quickly:
3 Carat Sterling Silver Oval Sapphire Earrings
$11.00 Sale Price
$89.99 Retail
Emerilware Forged German Steel Cutlery 5 Piece Set in Wooden Storage Box
$46.00 Sale Price
$129.99 Retail
Chacal Taylor Cindy’s Ostrich Night Tote by Alyssa
$33.00 Sale Price
$170.00 Retail
Get signed up and check out their site. Hopefully you’ll be able to score some great deals and make Christmas a bit easier this year!
My Past Two Months & #Cinchspiration Update
I’d love to say my journey so far has been effortless, without a speed bump or detour, but that’s not true. The very first few days I over thought the details of the program and watched EVERYTHING I ate, exercised too much, and I got incredibly weak. I realized that I only ate 300 calories one day. I had the meal bar, the shake, a sip of the tea, a snack bar and a very light salad. 300 calories! No wonder I was exhausted and grumpy. I realized that this was unhealthy so I added in more fruit and healthy snacks and ate a more sensible (and sometimes down right unhealthy) dinner. Finding balance in all areas of life is a struggle for me and I’m sure it will be to the day I die. I want to give everything 110% and time wise that’s not possible and not always a good idea.
During my journey with Shaklee I also ended up in the hospital {not because of the program!!} and had to have my appendix removed. Then it wasn’t anytime before my doctor thought I might have Crohn’s Disease and sent me for a colonoscopy. The tests came back negative, by the way! You think I would have lost weight with these but nope, I gained 6 pounds after my colonoscopy. That was discouraging but I was sure it was just fluid from the IVs they were pumping me with.
Four days after my appendectomy I attended the Reviewer’s Retreat which was amazing! I MUST take the time and write out the details and share more pictures. It was a great conference and it was so nice to meet “online friends” in person! In the picture you may recognize Becky from week99er.com, Jaime from CouponCrazyFreebieFanat
Fast forward a few weeks and I have a little girl’s 1 year birthday party to plan. {Pictures and all the details will be coming soon, I promise!!} My good friend also asked me to make a birthday cake for her sister for the day before my little girl’s party. Chaos! Then I had a VBS backdrop to paint and supplies to buy and volunteers to gather. Not to mention, a lesson to learn, props to buy, and a classroom to decorate. Somewhere in there my 14 year old cousin came down to stay with us for the week. I’ll have to post pictures of that week too! We had so much fun shopping, baking, and crafting. During this time of chaos we never stopped inviting people over for dinner, accepting invitations out, and I never stopped sitting with the sweetest lady who has Alzheimer a few nights a week. Let’s see…I’m a little scatterbrained at the moment and I’m sure I’m forgetting 5 or 6 other things. Sufficient to say, life. has. been. hectic. The Cinch program was nice because I could quickly eat without giving thought to what I’m going to eat or taking time to slow down and prepare a meal. I’ll admit that sometimes I didn’t take time to get the blender out and make the shake so I would eat a half peanut butter sandwich, fruit, or even the snack bar for a meal. That’s better than skipping a meal like I would do before!
We also visited family up in WV to have another birthday party for our baby girl. That was foiled by a power outage due to the crazy storms that were going on. It was in the 90’s!! We were staying at our in-laws the night before the big party and we were actually celebrating the birthday of our niece. My husband and I ran out quickly to the grocery store to pick up some baby food. On our way out of the grocery parking lot the storm came. It felt like we were in a movie {Twister to be exact}! A HUGE tree fell right in front of us on our way home so we backed up, turned around and tried an alternate route home but there was a tree blocking the road, then we tried another, and another. We tried a total of six different ways home before we found one that was clear! It’s a good thing my husband grew up there and knew his way around. If I was by myself I probably would have sat in the grocery store parking lot and cried. Everyone was safe and we ended up having a pretty fun party in the dark. {Notice the picture above.} We normally slept upstairs at their house but without air conditioning it was just too hot. The men set up a pretty amazing bed for her downstairs with a table blocking one side of the mattress, the couch the other, etc. but she didn’t like it one bit. She cried, fussed, and then just laid there whimpering. I sat outside the door a nervous wreck not having a good solution. I made my way to the couch and tried to sleep there but I wasn’t too successful. After a few hours and what had seemed like an eternity later, my husband suggested that we go upstairs to sleep, thinking that maybe it had cooled off enough with the nighttime breeze. We went up and checked it out and sure enough, it was tolerable. As soon as we confirmed the next day that we had power down here in NC we made a beeline home.
Boy, this part is hard to write. Earlier this month my grandmother went home to be with her Lord. I know it’s a fact but it still doesn’t seem real. My husband and I drove up to Cleveland Clinic after we dropped our sweet girl and dog off at my in-laws. The rest of my family were there waiting for us before they took her off the ventilator. As we were pulling in the garage ready to meet my dad in the lobby we got a call from him saying that she was fading quickly and he was headed up stairs. This girl ran and ran and quickly found out just how out of shape she was! Thankfully, thankfully, I was able to spend time with her and say goodbye. She even opened her eyes to look at me once!! Helping my family with the obituary and memorial service details we stayed in town a few more days. It. was. tough. I was an emotional wreck. Even though I ate a few of the snack bars that I brought with me I didn’t hesitate to get ice cream every chance I got. Ice cream is my go-to comfort food. Oh and on the way home from the funeral, near the beginning of our 4.5 hour drive, our air conditioner went out! You can bet I got ice cream at every gas station we stopped at. {The picture above is of a lovely rainbow that was outside the church after my grandmother’s memorial service. It was perfect!}
The next weekend I was on the road again to travel to go to my best friend’s wedding. It was such a joy to meet up with some of my closest friends from college! That was all fun and I didn’t encounter any problems going, there, or coming back!!!
Now that I’m back home with a relatively calm schedule I’ve been doing pretty good. I haven’t been exercising like a maniac or anything but I’ve been going for a morning walk/speed walk with my little girl and dog several days out of the week. I’m probably not the poster child for this program but I want to give you information about Cinch from a real person’s perspective. Real people don’t stick to every detail of the plan every day. We don’t, right? Life happens. We don’t go to the gym for a few hours every day. Nobody else does this, do they? I think the great thing about Cinch is that you can make it fit your life and not the other way around. It’s not a dictator of your life but it’s a tool to help you lose unwanted inches.
If you’ve read this far you deserve an applause! Thank you for caring and reading about my story. Please, if you’re reading this leave me a comment. It’s unbelievably encouraging to get feedback from you! After you leave a comment : ), feel free to check out my video on #Cinchspiration Update on YouTube or view it below.
Old Navy: Up to 75% off Clearance Prices This Weekend
Old Navy posted on their Facebook Page that all stores will be offering up to 75% off clearance prices this weekend (Friday through Sunday). This coupon is only available for in-store shopping only.
You can print a 10% coupon here . If you decide to stay home and shop online, don’t forget to click through Ebates first to get 2% cash back.
ThermoWorks Miniature Needle Probe Review
This is Ashley’s husband again with yet another review from the good people at ThermoWorks. I love this company! You may recall that I have reviewed two products from them already and they remain two of my very favorite cooking tools. The first was the Thermapen, which is the incredibly fast and accurate thermometer used by food safety inspectors, television cooks, and home cooks alike. I must admit this remains my very favorite and most used product from the company. I would recommend a good, instant read digital thermometer to anyone that cooks and this one is the best of the best. {Insert from Ashley: Through Labor Day ThermoWorks is having a HUGE sale on the Thermapen!! They’re calling it their Buddy Sale. When you buy 2 or more Thermapens you’ll only pay $80 for each one. Regularly $96! Expires Labor Day 9/3/12. Visit ThermoWorks for more information.}
The second product I received was the TW8060 two-channel thermocouple. This is another great product that I use quite often. If you read the review of the TW8060 two-channel thermocouple you may recall that the the TW8060 is a 2-channel thermocouple alarm thermometer that works with a large variety of K type probes sold by Thermoworks. Less technically, the TW8060 is the thermometer and display (and other functions) where you can monitor the temperatures of two different probes at once and the probes are detachable and interchangeable. Thermoworks sells hundreds of different types of probes you can choose from depending on the intended use.
For the original review they gave me two probes to review along with it: the crocodile clip probe which is used to monitor the temperature inside your oven, grill, or smoker; and the smokehouse probe which is a leave-in thermometer used to measure the temperature of a thick cut of meat. These probes were both wonderful and I use them often. I use the crocodile clip probe every single time I use the grill for closed lid, indirect cooking. Since my grill doesn’t have a thermostat like the oven does it’s the only way to maintain a constant temperature for low and slow cooking. I just keep the lid shut, monitor the temperature (the TW8060 has alarms to help with this) and tweak the dials on my gas grill as needed. It almost feels like cheating but some people need all the help they can get! The smokehouse probe I use somewhat less often because I usually don’t cook chunks of meat that large, but when I do it is as essential a tool as the crocodile clip probe.
But what about when I’m grilling something smaller like chicken breasts? I tried the smokehouse probe for that a few times and it did work but the probe is really not designed for small pieces of meat like that and it leaves quite a big hole for juices to escape. This brings me to the current review. We got a new probe to review that is aptly named the “miniature needle probe”. This probe has quickly become a real favorite of mine. As the name implies this probe is quite thin (0.06” diameter!). This looks as thin as a hypodermic needle. Not only have I used this as a leave in probe for chicken breasts, I’ve even used it as a leave in probe for thin tilapia filets (going in from the side). Yes, it is that thin! If I felt like I was cheating before, using the crocodile clip to monitor the grill temperature, I really feel like I’m cheating now. Delicious, succulent cheating. With a cooking diary, grill temperature monitor, and a thin leave in meat thermometer you are pretty much guaranteeing yourself consistent results.
One of the surprising things about this probe is that even though it is designed to be a leave in probe, it is actually instant read as well. In fact it gives a 2 second reading (yes, that is faster than the Thermapen!). This doesn’t really replace the Thermapen, though, since the Thermapen is still much more convenient to handle and use for checking temps instantly. You could use it as an instant read if you really wanted to but it would be a bit of a bother fiddling with the wires and hooking it up to the TW8060 as opposed to just pulling the Thermapen out and flipping open the probe. They go great together though. You can leave the miniature needle probe in one piece of meat at a time and monitor the temperature of that piece to give you an idea of how your meat is cooking but then you would still want to do a quick temperature check on the other pieces with your Thermapen to make sure it’s all done and not just the one piece.
I initially wanted this probe for grilling chicken breasts slowly with indirect heat but I have found many other uses for it since then. As I have mentioned, I have used it for tilapia filets on the grill and I’ve also used it for thick ribeyes using Meathead’s reverse sear method. Just be sure to remove the miniature needle probe before you get to the searing step since it is only rated up to 482 F and the higher searing temperatures will likely damage the probe. The probe is probably not long enough (2” and 3.5” models are available) to get to the center of a pork loin or brisket, so you will still want a smokehouse probe if you plan to use the TW8060 for that, however the miniature needle probe would work great with a small ham or a roast.
But the miniature needle probe isn’t limited to grilling or even to meat. Another use that I love is for bread baking. I love baking sourdough loaves and one indicator of the doneness is the bread’s internal temperature (although it is not the only indicator). To use my miniature needle bread for bread baking I first bake the bread for about 20 minutes so it can hold the thermometer without tearing and then I insert the probe into the center of the bread from the side. The hole it leaves is tiny and barely noticeable. It’s so small I have even used it to check the doneness of miniature blueberry muffins in a similar manner!
Another surprising use that I love is for baking potatoes. Baked potatoes are more forgiving than some foods but there is a somewhat fine margin of fluffy, moist perfection that lies between a hard, undercooked baked potato and an overcooked, dried out potato and the best way to find that margin of perfection is by the internal temperature. Ever cook a baked potato for the recommended time at the recommended temperature only to cut it open and it’s still hard in the center? Potatoes are different sizes and they won’t always cook exactly the same. The time and temperature that worked last time might not work this time. Find the internal temperature that you love and cook it until it hits that temperature and you won’t ever be surprised by the result. Then it’s just a matter of figuring out how you like the skin and modifying the oven temperature each time you bake a potato until you find one that gives you a skin that you love. The different temperatures will result in different baking times but if you are relying on the internal temperature to determine doneness you won’t have to worry about it. As with the bread I do partially bake the potato before inserting the probe because it’s easier to insert.
One other ideal use for this particular probe is a cooking technique called sous vide. I just read an article on ThermoWorks’ blog about it recently and it is very interesting. It does require some equipment in addition to the miniature needle probe: a thermal circulator that can accurately maintain a constant temperature in water and a vacuum sealer. We have a vacuum sealer but don’t have thermal circulator so I haven’t actually ever tried this but would like to sometime.
If you do a simple web search (e.g. internal temperature of baked potato) for just about any food you can find the ideal internal temperature. Use that as your starting point and then see what you like and adjust as needed. Keep track of it and with great thermometers you will have great, consistent results.
Walgreens: Five Free Facebook Photos Printed!
Walgreens just came out with a fun and new Facebook app that allows you to print your Facebook photos WITH the likes and comments included on them. This is perfect for scrap-booking!!! Through September 1, 2012, they are giving everyone five free Facebook Photos to everyone. Yay!
To get yours, simply download this app, choose the five free photos you want to have printed, and use coupon code FREEWORTHY at checkout. Your total should be $0. If you pick these up at your nearest Walgreens you won’t even have to pay for shipping!
It isn’t the great big pleasures that count the most
“It isn’t the great big pleasures that count the most;
it’s making a great deal out of the little ones.” – Jean Webster
This has always been one of my favorite quotes. I love to slow down and take pleasure in the little things in life. Having a one year old, who is amazed with the world, often helps put things in perspective.
She enjoys just sitting and watching Daddy mow the grass.
She enjoys reading a good book and taking breaks to sing loudly.
She doesn’t care what anyone thinks.
She whole-heartedly loves splashing in water!
Pure, unadulterated, happiness!
I ran across this quote today and I found it to be a good reminder to slow down and enjoy the simple things in life. If you will, Embrace the Beauty in life. : ) I hope it was a good reminder for you too!
Boys and Girls Club – Tools for Back to School
Back to school season is here, whether we like it or not! I’m sure I’m not the only one who has mixed emotions about school starting but it’s happening. What are some of the things you do to prepare your kids to go back to school? A big shopping trip, one last weekend of vacation fun, or maybe a quick refresh of last year’s studies?
Boys and Girls Club of America and Disney have partnered to launch the Tools for Back to School initiative. This initiative features a pop-quiz style game, where supplies are donated to BGCA for correct answers. It’s fun, easy, and it only takes a few minutes! Plus, it will help prepare several kids with the supplies they need to start school.
Boys and Girls Club of America also has a few tips to help your kids have a great start to their new school year. There are tip sheets and educational content for parents to take advantage of. Go to BGCA.org to check them out. Simply visit their site, click “Get Ready” on the sidebar to begin browsing the free info.
BGCA has also partnered with JCPenney – and in August you can join JCP Cares and round up your purchase at the register to benefit BGCA. Visit JCPenny.com to find out how to ‘round up’ if you visit JCP during August!
Do you know if you have a BGCA in your area? If you do, what have they done locally in your community?
“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of Boys and Girls Club. I received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”
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