Disclosure: I was asked to review this product, and was given samples of the product, but have received no other compensation. 

I was contacted last week by a rep for Natural Dynamix to review their children’s vitamins “Gummy Cuties by Natural Dynamix” and was surprised to receive the samples about two days later in the mail (that’s fast!).

We were shipped the Calcium/Vitamin D Cuties and the Omega 3 DHA/EPA (fish oil) cuties.

This was fantastic because our kids actually take both supplements, and if you’ve ever purchased either kind of supplement, you know they cost a pretty penny, and even in chewable form, sometiems it’s hard to get kids to take them!

Here’s our family’s thoughts on them.

1.  We ALL love gummy vitamins.  These have great flavor and texture.  They’re made with glucose, but not modified corn syrup. (It still might be corn glucose, but not the chemical-ized version).  I have a sensetivity to corn products, and these didn’t upset my stomach at all.   They’re also made with natural food colors, not artificial red dyes, which really seem to mess with our daughter’s ADHD medications.

2. The Omega 3 supplements didn’t taste fishy at all, every other Omega 3 we’ve tried had a fishy taste.

3. Perhaps the first truly tasty calcium chewable.  Usually they’re chalky and sticky.  These were a little chewier than the other vitamins, but not unpleasant.

4. No gluten, yeast, dairy, egg, soy, tree nuts, shellfish, salicylates, or peanuts. Yahoo!

5. Reasonable Prices (Shop for Gummy Cuties)

• Calcium with Vitamin D $14.99/60 tabs.
• Omega-3 DHA/EPA  $15.99
• Multi-Vitamin $13.99
• Echinacea with Vitamin C and Zinc $13.99

Here’s my only complaint. 

The child dose for these vitamins  is two chewables of each, but for children more than four years old dose is four gummies.  This means the typical jar of gummies for a child over four years old lasts just 15 days.  These have a good flavor, no spooky ingredients, and reasonable price, but I’d have to buy eight bottles of each, every month to use them for the whole family.   (My husband and I, and the two kids). Keeping everyone on the same vitamins is just much simpler.  Besides…. someone in my house will always raid the kids’ gummy vitamins if he’s out.  I really hope that they start making these in larger containers.

Overall, I think it’s a great product, and would happily use it again.

If you’d like to learn more about Natural Dynamix, you can find them on the web here, and also on Facebook, or Twitter.

When I quit my job in October, I did it in the opposite way most people would recommend. Three months padding savings account? No. Paid off all my debt? Quite the opposite. I had caught the entrepreneurial bug, and I wanted to make the leap.

Seven months later, I’m glad to say my entrepreneurial spirit has paid off, but unfortunately my debt balance would say otherwise. This is where The Cost of Your Vices was born.

We all live with the necessity to cut expenses, but what few of us consider are the costs of our daily vices. Let’s stop to consider the most common vice: the coffee break.

The average cup of coffee costs $1.38, and the average coffee drinker has 3.1 cups a day – this equals close to $5/day on coffee, and an annual expense of $1,511 a year. If you’re a humanitarian, you could stop to think that it takes $20 to bring fresh clean water to one person who doesn’t have it. That’s about the cost per week of a daily cup of joe. We haven’t even stopped to consider the health benefits of quitting this vice, such as coffee withdrawal and irritability, headaches and bowel disturbances.

The Cost of Your Vices quiz serves to educate us not only on the monetary benefits of quitting our vices, but also the health benefits and societal benefits. This quiz covers cigarettes, fast food, alcohol, fast food and lotto tickets, and serves up your annual financial savings based on your consumption.

Are you ready to quit your vices and pad your savings account? The average quiz taker can save over $1,000 a year! Find out what you stand to save.

Kelsey Libert is a speaker, entrepreneur and director at Fractl.

There’s a good reason–I dove headfirst into a 90 hour training course to get my real estate broker’s license–something I’ve wanted to do since I was a small child.  I remember watching my parents shop for houses when I was about nine years old.  Flipping through binders of homes for sale, “helping” my parents choose (“we could have a pony at this house!”)  I think all of my efforts were rewarded when they ended up choosing a house with land enough for a pony, and we did get the pony I’d always wanted.

It’s funny where dreams come from, isn’t it?

Anyhow, I’ve waited for years.  It was never the “right time” to pursue that career full-time.  The economic uncertainty, the vulnerability of 100% commission, and my (formerly) young age (who wants to buy a house from someone who hasn’t owned a couple?)  Well, all of those barriers have passed, so I enrolled in class, took the required 90 hours of classroom education, passed the licensing exam and I signed up with an agency last week.

It takes most people months to do all of that. I did it in 28 days, which is why I haven’t been around here lately. Or anywhere else.  I now face a neglected blog, a pile of laundry and dishes, and a hairdresser that is positively ashamed of me for how far I’ve let myself go. (Sorry Randy).

 Other Distractions

Now I have a new diversion from blogging.  Dr. Who.  You see, the first episode of Season 7 part 2 released last night.  I don’t get cable, so I waited up nearly all night to get it on Amazon.com instant.   Yes, I’m that nerdy.  Dr. Who is one of my favorite little escapes.  If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it. Watch the trailers free at Amazon.com and see if it looks like your kind of thing.  (The link her is for the SD version because it’s cheaper, and runs better on my wifi).

Disclosure: This post includes affiliate links–it’s how I cover the expense of maintaining this blog. If you’re offended by affiliate links, the neutral link is here: http://tinyurl.com/coxm3ce

Image courtesy of antpkr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net 

A conversation with little M ( age 7).
“Mom–Are the cats going to loose their baby teeth?”
Me: “No, they’re grown up, they lost their baby teeth when they were babies.”
Melat: “If they’re grown up, why do they still live here?”
Me: “They are our pets. They live here. We can’t exactly turn them into the wild. I think they’d starve.”
Melat: “They’d hunt a yummy deer or something I think.”
Me: “Our couch potato cats would team up and hunt a deer?”
Melat: “Yes, deer have some yummy meat. They would race and get one.”
Oh my…. this soooo reminds me of Destiny at seven years old… her question to everything was “Is it dead? Can you eat it? Can you eat it if you make it dead?” My goodness, these kids…

A “Popsicle Bone” at our house,  is one of the funny little things our kids say or do.  When our youngest was three years old and just learning English (she’s adopted from Ethiopia) she asked her grandmother for another Popsicle because she ate it “to the bone” — the phrase has just stuck for whenever we get a good laugh out of the kids. (Every couple of hours). 

For a long time, whenever a kid broke the rules, my #1 mom weapon was to take the iPod.  Until I found an iPod that had been under my bed for six months.  The fact of the matter is, they forget they’re missing it.  When they have them though, they’re acutely aware of it. (Why don’t it work like this when a child has BO?)   Heaven help ‘em if one of my country western songs gets on their iPods…. “mom, can you PLEASE TAKE IT OFF??? It huts my ears!!!” (Whine, whine, whine…)

I think I’ve found a better way to ground the iPod.

First off, I should explain, all music comes from my PC.  We call it “the mother ship” (tee hee).   If kids want music on their gizmos, it must first come through me. They can’t have music I wouldn’t approve of.  But they do have their pods full of Bieber-esque stuff I probably don’t want to listen to. It’s how we keep them safe around technology.

Today though, one of these kids made me mad.  There was a big lie, and lies are the one thing that put me just over the edge. I was seeing red. I sent her to her room so I could think… and tripped over the pod on my way back to my desk. Then it hit me.

I could lecture all day, or she could lecture her self… bwahahaha….

New playlist.  ”Grounded” 

The contents are entirely Dave Ramsey podcasts and sermons.   I’ll report back later with effectiveness.

Image courtesy of antpkr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

.

When I’m plugged into my computer, I can listen to the kids doing their own things, and the overheard nuggets of play and conversation are a riot….This morning, I overheard them baptizing the cats in the kitchen sink. While washing dishes. No, “baptizing” wasn’t a euphemistic term for “splashing” they were having a full-on baptismal service with two cats, soapy water, and last night’s gravy pot. (This is the cats’ second baptism this week that I am aware of… it must not be sticking.) Perhaps when you use soapy gravy water instead of holy water….

A “Popsicle Bone” at our house,  is one of the funny little things our kids say or do.  When our youngest was three years old and just learning English (she’s adopted from Ethiopia) she asked her grandmother for another Popsicle because she ate it “to the bone” — the phrase has just stuck for whenever we get a good laugh out of the kids. (Every couple of hours). 

This is a great picture book for reading to your little ones, especially Kindergarten and first graders. The story centers around a first grader’s preparation for a school presentation all about herself, and some unanswered questions about her biological parents.  It models healthy grieving and parent discussions, and ultimately, the little girl chooses to include her adoptive parents and a mention of her birth parents in her school presentation. It’s presented in a comfortable drama-free way that any small child can understand. I wish we’d known about this when our oldest was a first grader and dealing with all of the same questions and worries, and the fear that everyone at school would ask 1,000 questions about her adoption that would make her uncomfortable.

Long story short, if you have adopted children under 2nd grade, buy the book, you won’t regret it!

Spread the word.  Details and how to find your nearest Ihop are online here.   This event is a fundraiser for Children’s Miracle Network.  While you get your pancakes for free, consider a donation to this great charity.  Children’s Miracle Network has an excellent rating with Charity Navigator.