Category: Product Reviews

I’ve been telling you the past couple of months how much I LOVE Vicks VapoRub – it’s one of my favorite cold care products out there!  It really does soothe me, and has since I was a child.  I know my kiddos will grow up feeling relaxed and comforted whenever they smell that unmistakable Vicks smell, also.  You can read my other tales of VapoRub reliefr here and here – but today I’m going to offer up some great cold prevention tips I got from the Vicks VapoRub Facebook page.  Here are some practical ways to keep from getting colds or the dreaded flu:

• Keeping hands moisturized helps keep our germs – I must say I had no idea about this one.  But apparently when your hands are dry and cracked, it’s much easier for germs to get in those cracks and infect you!  I am really guilty of not moisturizing my hands enough. Since I change about a zillion diapers a day, mine are always dry and cracked!  I’m going to start doing better on this one right away!
• Warm water alone doesn’t cut it. You gotta use soap. Yikers, apparently there are folks out there who think simply rinsing hands with warm or hot water will kill germs, but studies show warm water alone does virtually nothing to kill germs!  You gotta use soap to kill those bad boys!
• Hand sanitizing gel needs to dry all the way. When you use hand sanitizing gel, you’ve gotta rub your hands until they are thoroughly dry.  Germs adhere much better to wetness, even if the wetness is “sanitized”.
• Humidity helps fight cold viruses! I must admit I didn’t know this one, either!  A humidifier can be your BFF during cold season!  Keeping indoor humidity levels between 40-60% really helps slow the spread and growth of viruses! (and yes, Vicks DOES make humidifiers!)

Ok, so there are a few tips to keep from getting a cold!  But if you or your kiddos do get one, I highly recommend Vicks VapoRub to soothe the irritating coughs that colds often bring.  And if you’ve never tried it – now’s your chance!  Once again this month I am giving away a Vicks “Cold care combo” – Vicks VapoRub, NyQuil, and DayQuil.  Here’s how to enter:

1) Leave a comment on this post telling me what you do to prevent colds!

2) For an additional entry,”like” Vicks VapoRub’s Facebook page and leave me a separate comment here letting me know you did so.

One winner will be chosen at random on April  2nd, 2011.  Winner will be notified by email.  Good luck!

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I am being compensated for my role in the Vicks Blogger Brigade.  All opinions on Vicks VapoRub and other Vicks products are mine alone.

This one is for all you Dayton-area people!

So let me start by saying this – I love my house. I really do. But I seriously hate our carpet.

It’s super light – just-barely-off white – and I think it’s got to be original to the house, which means it’s a solid 16 years old. The previous owners had two kids. We have two kids.

Did I mention the carpet is almost white?

Yeah. It shows everything. A week ago, I was honestly embarrassed to have people come into the house because the carpet looked so bad! It had been a year since we’d had it cleaned and there were just spots everywhere.

Needless to say, when Dry Right contacted me to see if they could come show me what they were about, I was all over it.

Ironically enough, they had just been to my grandma’s house the day before, doing their other service – 24-hour water removal. Instead of pulling up her carpet, as she’s had done before, they brought in a huge fan and a giant water-sucking (that is the technical term) machine and after a few days, it was good as new. They’re a professional, certified crew, and I knew I was in good hands!

They came to clean the carpets while we were at work, and that day Andy got home before I did. As soon as he walked through the door, he called me – he was practically giddy. Andy is a bit (understatement of the year) type A, and generally he finds something that’s not exactly right, but not this time. He said it looked amazing, and he was right. I could hardly believe it when I got home!

Want to see for yourself?

Here are some “before” pictures:

Look closely at that last picture – see the scribbles? Sammy took a DRY ERASE marker to our carpet! What you see there is what was left after I used carpet cleaning solution on it… I thought it was going to be there forever.

Not so! It is gone. And so are the other nasty spots on our carpet.

Look at what a great job the guys at Dry Right did:

It seriously looks great now. I’m not even embarrassed to have people come into our house!

The nice people at Dry Right want YOU as a customer too, so they’re offering Mommin’ It Up readers a special deal – use coupon code MOMMINITUP and you can get any two areas cleaned for $44 or any SEVEN areas cleaned for $119. That is a great deal!! Call (937) 886-4489 or (937) 490-1138 to schedule a cleaning.

To learn more about Dry Right, visit their website and “like” them on Facebook. They’re giving away a two-room cleaning to one lucky Facebook fan on April 1st, so make sure to “like” them soon!

It’s always fun to find a great product that’s made locally, which is why I was interested in checking out the products from Tapaahsia Farm. Located in Liberty, Indiana (not far from my workplace), they’ve been making natural soaps for more than nine years.

What intrigued me even more about Tapaahsia Farm is the story of why they got started. Here’s what owner Karen Baldwin told me about how they got started:

“My husband, four children and I have managed a small farm for the last ten years located in Liberty, Indiana. Our main purpose for farming was to help feed the family. We produce some of our own meat products including, chicken, eggs, milk, yogurt and some cheese. We also home school and felt that farm life would aid in their educational experience by directly connecting them to their food source. We try to produce most of our own food products through gardening, meat (animal) production, laying hens and dairy goats. We learned very quickly that in order for the farm to be financially self-supportive we needed to produce a product that would help pay for farm related expenses. Nine years ago I pursued an interest I have had for some time in soap making. The soap has for the last three years paid for the farm and is growing every year, even in this stressed economy.”

How cool is that?!?

Karen was kind enough to send me some of their products to check out. A couple of things I particularly enjoyed were the Citrus Cream and the lip balms.

My husband and I both struggle with chapped, cracked hands all winter long, and we’re always on the lookout for something that will help. The website describes it as “A luxuriously soft face cream lightly scented with rose water, Ylang Ylang and Orange Essential Oils.” I like to put it on before bed, and wake up with my hands nice and soft!

I also really like the lip balms – not just for me, but for my kids. My kids LOVE chapstick, and honestly I kind of cringe when I see them putting it on because I know some of it’s going to be ingested – and really, what’s in that stuff? But since this lip balm is all natural, I feel much better about them using it!

Tapaahsia Farm has a whole line of soaps, lotions and creams. They even have baby products – their Blushing Bottom cream is made with zinc oxide, jojoba oil, avocado oil and olive oil. That sounds like a great baby shower present to me! Their products are sold at local markets, retail locations, directly from the farm and online.

To learn more, check out their website and become a fan on Facebook!