This week my toddler, Mr. Parker, has been digging on his new BPA free feeding gear from ThinkBaby. It is a complete stainless steel feeding system encased in safe plastic (polypropylene). It contains a baby bowl with lid, a soup bowl with lid, a bento box with air tight lid, a cup, a fork, and a spoon. They are free of BPA, PVC, phthalates, lead, and melamine.

My first impression of the set was that it is VERY attractive and functional. We got rid of the cheap plastic and melamine plates and cups a long time ago and started using regular dishes. But there is just something to be said about pint size dishes that can be tossed around without fear of breakage. I can’t recall if I ever mentioned this before but Mr. Parker has a one inch scar on his cheek from a glass bowl that broke. It was a very traumatic experience so I fully understand why many parents want kiddie dishes instead of adult dishes. I could care less about the expense of broken dishes but I care very much when I have to spend half a day in the hospital having my baby stitched up. :(  And I care that he is now scarred for life.

The Thinkbaby Feeding Set is very attractive, it is much more sustainable then pure plastic options, it is sturdy and functional, and much safer than other many other feeding products. BPA, PVC, phthalates, lead, and melamine are deal breakers.

This set is also perfect for travel and packing a lunch. This summer the family will be spending a lot of time at the zoo, the science museum, and picnicking in area parks. We plan on packing lunches in our bento boxes and Parker’s will be packed in this set. If I fill up a Laptop lunchbox for him, I would be wasting a lot of food… the Thinkbaby set is the perfect size for young kids. I think I will buy one for my 5 year old as well. They are not heavy at all so there won’t be extra weight to lug around either. They would be phenomenal for taking food to day cares and preschools.

My favorite piece in this set is the cup. It is the perfect size for my toddler and it has a handle so drinking is easier to master. Since we are not using sippy cups anymore it is the perfect solution. We use the cup more than any other item. The bento box is also great for snacks…either at home or on the go. Parker has been using the bento to eat his breakfast every morning of late… fresh and dehydrated fruit slices, sprinkled with crushed nuts and seeds. If he doesn’t manage to eat it all I just put the lid on it and stick it in the fridge until lunch. The bigger bowl is great for small salads and fresh cut veggies for dipping as well as soup.

I the only things I would change about this set are the utensils. I think they need to be bigger for toddlers and older kids. As they are, they reminded me of baby utensils…which is perfect for babies I guess but not so much for toddlers. I also wish they came in more colors. I would ideally like to have a set for my toddler and my 5 year old and each having their own special color would be awesome and would make traveling with these dishes even easier.

All in all though I think I can safely say this is my favorite set among the BPA free, safer kids dishes and cups. They are a good value for the money and I know we will get a lot of use out them. I would recommend them highly to other parents!

On the menu: Egg drop soup, a green smoothie with spinach and fruit, and sliced bananas sprinkled with dried cranberries, almonds, flax seed, and banana nut granola from Bare Naked.

Watch the video below to see Parker in action. He loved the green smoothie (of course) and the fruit…he would not touch the egg drop soup, he only played with it. He is soooo my vegan baby. ;)

Ugh…this morning I had the very unfortunate experience of logging on to my PayPal account and seeing a charge I did not make. :( Not only do I almost never use my PayPal debit card I was positive I had NOT forgotten a shopping spree at Barnes and Noble.com two days ago.

The lovely people at B&N reversed the charges immediately and were able to tell me that whoever made the purchase used my name, billing address, and card# but entered a different, local shipping address. Grrr…it makes it even worse when it is someone local ya know? But of course that helped me remember that I had only ever given out that card # once and it was to a local person. I had ordered pizza over the phone for my tax lady around a week ago.

So mystery solved…the young gal at the pizza place most likely wrote down the card info and pocketed it…then used it a few days later. Now I have to spend a bunch of time tracking down info, cancelling my card, and filing police reports. AND this also made me remember that this exact thing happened one other time two years ago. I gave my card  # out over the phone locally and within a week I had a fraudulent charge. I knew this town was economically depressed but this is nuts!

Anyway it is a nice reminder to be more careful with my check card info.

As you already know, I have lots of love for snazzy lunchboxes and bentos. One of my favorites lately has been a very simple and classic stainless steel lunch carrier from Healthy Kitchenware. It is stylish, easy to clean, and easy to use. When my hubby returns to work at some point I think this is the lunch carrier I will be packing for him.

It is a rectangular container with a stainless steel lid that latches with metal clasps. It includes a small ss container with a plastic lid (polypropylene). The smaller container is perfect for salad dressing, soups, or smaller snacks you don’t want to mix with the main dish. The whole carrier could also easily fit inside another lunchbox if the portion size is too small for you but I thought it was perfect. Overall it is a very good lunchbox that we will use often I think and I love the fact that it is stainless steel and very sustainable and safe. I can feel good about my family eating out of it.

The picture above is my husband’s lunch from yesterday…white fish fillet, egg drop soup, and fresh fruit.

Remember my Leaprog Tag review from awhile back? Well, we my daughter is still using her Tag frequently…as in once a week or more. In the evenings she often likes to wind down by listening to Fancy Nancy or Olivia books. I am still convinced that it is a great way to keep a child occupied in an educational way while you run errands, travel, or sit in the DMV waiting for your number to be called.

March is National Reading Month and to celebrate LeapFrog has started a campaign to get parents to pledge a combined 1 million hours of reading time for their children. Their goal is to bring attention to literacy and to encourage families to make time to read together..even if it is only 10 minutes a day. Who can’t manage ten minutes a day???

All participants will receive special rewards and offers from LeapFrog but one of my readers will get something EXTRA special!!! All you have to do is go to the LeapFrog pledge page and pledge (it’s FREE) the number of minutes you will read to your child or children every day. THEN come back here and tell me in the comments section how many minutes you pledged or just that you pledged if you don’t want to share the minutes. The comment will be your entry. Subsequent entries can be gained by linking to this post, or submitting it to social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Stumbleupon. Each entry needs to be a separate comment but you must pledge for it to be valid.

So what do you get??! One winner will get, directly from LeapFrog, one Tag reader + 5 books for personal use, as well as an expanded-memory LeapFrog School Tag reader + 10 books to donate to your local library.

Closed!! The winner is #73 Anne!!! Congrats!!!

If you just can’t wait to get your hands on a Tag Reader they are on sale at Amazon at the moment. Via this link you can get $10 off a reader and $4 off any of the books.

“We are lovers of beauty without extravagance” – Thucydides

I read this amazingly simple and heartwarming quote from a book this weekend. The book is Frugal Luxuries – Simple Pleasures to Enhance Your Life and Comfort Your Soul by Tracey McBride and I really, really, really, can’t say enough good things about it. The idea behind the book is to show us how being frugal and simple in our taste is really an art form. It has nothing to do with being miserly or being a cheapskate and everything to do with living well, even luxuriously, on less. It is about making do with what we have and finding joy in all the simple pleasures of life, being a lover of beauty without the extravagance.

A mental image from one of the chapters has always stuck with since I first read this book over a year ago. It talked about a family living in an abandoned wood shack. A group of charity workers heard someone was living in it and decided to stop by and leave food for the family. When they went inside they were stunned by what they saw. The wood floor was scrubbed until it gleamed and was covered with wood wax. A fire was burning in an old river rock fireplace and on the hearth sat a pot of simmering apples and cinnamon that made the place smell divine. A spool discarded by the cable company served as their table and it was adorned with floor length green and white checked gingham cloth. Simple curtains made from the same fabric covered their windows and hung from willow branches. A garland of evergreen and pine cones hung from the ceiling like a wallpaper border. They sat on fruit crates topped with red cushions and their guests were treated like royalty when they stopped by.

This always struck me as a perfect example of what being frugal/simple is all about…. living well, and being happy with less. Not feeling as though luxury has to equal expensive. Luxury could be that latte you treat yourself to once a week. It could be fresh strawberries, still warm from the sun. It could be reading a book next to an open window as rain falls.

We live in a society that almost always seem to emphasize that a good life full of luxuries requires lots of money. This book shows how this just isn’t so. It also shows how being frugal is an art we can cultivate to improve our lives and simplify them or perhaps even realize that we already have all the luxuries we need and value.

In chapter two, McBride compares the the money attitudes of America versus Europe. She claims that Americans are concerned about cost..the actual dollar amount of a service or product. Europeans are concerned with “time” it took to earn the required amount of dollars. Instead of wondering if they can afford something or generalizing that such and such is a good monetary price, they are mentally tabulating how much of their time is being traded for the goods in question. It is a lot harder to submit to instant gratification when you think in terms of time.

This reminds me of that story of you often see posted on the Internet of the Mexican fisherman who fishes just enough to feed and support his family so he can spend the majority of his time sleeping late, playing with his children, taking siestas with his wife, going to the village to see his friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. To him that is a full life. Then he meets and American who tells him that he should invest in more boats, put in more hours, expand his business, incorporate, and rake in lots of money. When the fisherman asks why he would want to do all that, the response is so that he could have enough money to be able to retire and sleep late, play with his grandchildren, take siestas with his wife, go to the village to see his friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. He already had everything he wanted but some people have to do things the hard way.

McBride encourages us to create a money map. It is basically a money plan that allows us to get away from random spending. She likens spending without a money map to choosing random articles of clothing without any consideration for color and style, resulting in a chaotic clash of colors and patterns. Random spending is chaotic and dysfunctional. No matter what budget you are working with you have to have a plan, or money map. She outlines how to do this in the book.

After some information on reducing debt she goes into simplifying your life…”eliminating material and intangible excess, conserving time, energy, money, and thoughts. It is using the resources you possess in a way that will take you toward your dreams, your goals – your desired future.” So again she emphasizes working with what you have to make a better life…not accumulating things to make it look like you have a better life.

Part of living simple and luxuriously on less is learning to value and appreciate simple things. People are what make an object valuable…things are not inherently valuable on their own and we CAN choose what things to value.

“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” – Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

McBride shares with us ways in which we can start to value different things like friendship, memories, kindness, levity, learning, observing, wisdom, and family time. She makes a case for each as to why they will enrich our lives more than any physical item we think we need to own.

Other sections of the book discuss practical every day ideas we can apply to our lives like frugal and luxurious food… or humble cookery, frugal clothing, and making a home. The food section has lots of great tips for making meals into feasts and it has little to do with making more food or having expensive food. Her clothing tips were good reminders for me. I am drowing in laundry and I think it is time to downsize every one’s wardrobe. Statistically McBride says we only use 20% of the clothes we have on a regular basis. I also loved her tips on frugal decorating and the personal stories are priceless.

Frugal Luxuries continues to be a real gem with great wisdom and helpful tips and it is one I will likely be reading every year for a refresher on why simple and frugal are the way to go.

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Want to teach your children about simple, humble values and lives? Try reading them the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The author or Frugal Luxuries refers to it often.