It's Easy Being Green

I’ve heard over the years that the habits of oral hygiene are best set at an early age. Here at the Half-Acre Homestead, we’ve been working hard to get our not quite three year old daughter into the habit of brushing her teeth. She was eager to learn the ins and outs of brushing and still seems to look forward to the task every time she gets the opportunity.

I wish as an adult, brushing my teeth could still be as exciting as it seems to be for our darling daughter. The daily routine of brushing just becomes little more than that. I consider myself to have fairly good oral hygiene habits but am definitely not perfect. I don’t floss every single day and sometimes I only brush once a day. I do love my coffee though and that tends to speed up the rate at which my teeth stain. In fact, the dentist often lectures me on how I need to give up my favorite beverage in order to obtain that perfectly white smile. Too bad it’s not MY top priority in life to have a grill full of polished white Chiclets

I’m hoping the new Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 with SmartGuide toothbrush might bring some fun back into the routine of brushing, at least for this adult who will always try to recreate the fun experienced with my first pediatric dentist. I’ve always used the standard old brush and have been weary of trying an electric or battery powered toothbrush.

What intrigues me most about the Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 is the wireless SmartGuide that is included. The SmartGuide actually gives you real time feedback on your brushing performance, including how much time you’re spending in each quadrant of your mouth and if you’re pressing too hard on your brush.

Over the next week, I’ll be playing around with the Oral-B ProfessionalCare SmartSeries 5000 and will tell you what I think about it at week’s end. Until then, happy brushing!

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Oral-B and received a product sample to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

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As you round out your seed orders for the 2012 vegetable garden, have you considered adding any heirloom vegetables or fruits to your shopping list? This year we are making the push to dive even deeper into heirlooms and I encourage every gardener and homesteader to do the same.

Heirlooms are open-pollinated varieties of plants that are often 60 or more years old. Most date back 100 years or more. Heirlooms are the truest plants, often showcasing eyestopping individuality and some of the finest flavors you can get in a fruit or vegetable. Aside from sticking it to large agri-business based seed companies who deal in hybrid or Genitically Modified seeds, heirloom seed can be saved and replanted year after year. You can read more about it here.

If you’d like to learn more about heirloom gardening, you should pick up a copy of a brand new book on the subject. The Beginner’s Guide to Growing Heirloom Vegetables: The 100 Easiest-to-Grow, Tastiest Vegetables for Your Garden by Marie Iannotti.

If the 250 pages of scintillating photographs of heirlooms don’t have your taste buds watering and your green thumb twitching, I’m not sure what will. Iannotti gracefully shares her 100 favorite heirlooms, treasures that should be kept under lock and key. She also shares the wonderful stories that round out the unique history of each featured heirloom.

Don’t let the title fool you either. This book should also be a prize for any gardener with more advanced skills. I give it two green thumbs up!

Now you can win a copy of the book along with a spectacular heirloom garden prize pack including 35 packets of heirloom seeds and a bareroot tree! Click the link to head to Timber Press and enter The Heirloom Garden Giveaway

What’s your favorite heirloom fruit or vegetable to grow?

Popularity: 14% [?]

Looking battered and beaten, the nasty winter weather certainly took its toll on our doormat this past year. At the time we bought it we were pleased, almost smitten with ourselves. We sprung for a bright, contemporary “designer” coir fiber doormat we found on clearance at Pier One Imports. We got it for a song but little did we know we’d only get half a year out of the darn thing.

Since my layoff last year and the landing of my new job, we’ve done little to support the economy. Homestead Hottie and I have an ever expanding list of wants but have come to the realization that most of it doesn’t even matter. We let products absolutely wear themselves out before replacing them. Some might say we’re cheap. We like to think we’re smart and frugal, so something as unimportant as a doormat will often get forgotten about.

It was forgotten until last month when we had to breeze through our local Menards to pickup some hardware to repair our gate (something we did decide to spring for). Not only do we often “save big money” at Menards but we love their product rebate system on select items. While we were buying our hardware both Homestead Hottie and I groaned to each other that we wanted to replace the doormat. If we’re both in agreement then we know it’s time to pull the trigger and part with the cash.

Taking a gander at their doormat aisle resulted in a pleasant surprise for us new age, non-stinky hippies. Stocked from floor to top shelf were a dozen or so styles of doormats all made from recycled tires and made in the grand ‘ol U.S.A

The first thing we noticed about the door mats made by Multy Home was their look. It’s a classy door mat you can be proud of and nothing like that $1.99 faux grass plastic wonder. Second was the weight and tough construction of the rubber and coconut fiber mats. It feels and looks heavy duty enough to stand the heaving traffic of kids, pets, four season weather and anyone else who might come knocking at your door. While more expensive than the “cheap” door mats, we didn’t think the pricing was too out of line.

We opted for a cobblestone pattern on our recycled tire door mat and I’m anxious to see how well it holds up over the next several months. I’m hoping the old treads that used to propel a vehicle will hold up to a year or more worth of foot traffic treading across the threshold of my Half-Acre Homestead.

*NOTE: I did not receive any compensation for this product review. This is my opinion of a product we recently purchased.

Popularity: 6% [?]

I’ve always had a respect for families who schedule a “family night”, one night out of the week where everybody stays at home and hangs out together. Several friends of mine in high school had family night and I often had to work our extra-curricular fun around their schedules. At the time I thought it was lame. Now that I’m a parent, I can definitely see the merit behind a night at home with all the kids!

For now, every night is a family night with our two darling daughters. Since Everly is a toddler and Adalyn is still an infant I guess you could consider them a captive audience but they tire out early. Homestead Hottie and I recently stayed up late though and had the privilege to catch a sneak preview of a new movie perfect for a family night this Friday.

Game of Your Life revolves around character Zach Taylor, a teen graduating from high school who gets the chance of a lifetime to attend a prestigious video game design school. For Zach, the chance to leave home and make a bright future for himself is all fun and games until he is soon confronted with a big dose of reality.

Surrounded by friends and classmates who often spend more time making tough life decisions in a virtual world, Zach is snapped back to reality as he is forced to choose the path his life will take: the easy greed driven route that leaves his friends and school career behind or one that allows him to overcome the temptation and choose the door that will lead him in the direction his heart wants to go. Game of Your Life will air Friday, December 2 on NBC at 8pm ET/7pm CT.

It has been awhile since I’ve taken in a “made for TV” movie but I immediately noticed the quality of Game of Your Life is much better than the average after school special I grew up with. Sure, at times the dialogue can be corny and the constantly driving, royalty-free dance music that rubber bands in and out can be a distraction. In the end though, Game of Your Life presents a real life scenario most young adults will face based around a theme ever present in their electronic lives. It’s a feel good flick the whole family can enjoy this Friday night, December 2 on NBC at 8pm ET/7pm CT.

Make sure to check out the Family Movie Night website for more information on Game of Your Life and other family night ideas. You can also head over to their Family Movie Night Facebook page.

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of P&G and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

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*NOTE – I did not receive any products or services for this blog post*

No question about it, my excitement was far more noticeable as Homestead Hottie opened up a gift box mailed to her. Packed inside, nearly a half-dozen bottles of Martha Stewart’s clean products, everything from glass cleaner, toilet bowl scrub, laundry detergent and dish detergent.

Martha claims her product line if “effective, responsible and safe” with most being 99% plant and mineral based cleaning products. All ingredients in the cleaning products are said to be biodegradable with no artificial ingredients. Even the bottles are fully recyclable. These are all great features and just the type of products we’re always on the lookout to use here at the Half-Acre Homestead.

Using this batch of green cleaning products left me thinking Martha should stick to other things, mainly baking that 12 hour cake or hot gluing the most fantabulous wedding decorations you’ve ever seen this side of the Mississippi. If fact, I found her green cleaning products less than effective at their labeled task.

I like the pump spout on this bottle of laundry detergent but that was about the only thing I liked.

Martha Stewart’s clean Laundry Detergent smelled pleasant enough and had a thick, detergent like cream to it. We used the whole bottle of detergent and as long as your clothes weren’t soiled, they came out smelling and looking clean. Light to moderately soiled clothes often came out with stains and dirt still in place. Heavily soiled clothes didn’t stand a chance of coming clean with Martha’s detergent. Any level of soiling required the clothes be washed with our homemade natural laundry detergent.

Steer clear of Martha's Dish Detergent if you're looking for clean dishes.

Much of the same is to be said for the Martha Stewart clean Dishwasher Detergent. This detergent is fragrance free but I noticed right off the bat that it is extremely runny. While most liquid dish detergents are gels, Martha’s is watery and not very viscous at all. We used most of this bottle and found each and every wash with the detergent to leave our dishes covered in a scummy film. Dried or baked on food debris was never removed by the Martha Stewart clean Dishwasher Detergent and most truly dirty dishes had to be washed by hand following a run through the dishwasher. The results were so bad I quit using the detergent and it has since taken me several washes and hard hand-scrubbing to remove the film that Martha Stewart’s detergent left coating my dishes.

Martha's All-Purpose Cleaner has been effective in quickly cleaning lightly soiled areas of the house.

I have used the other cleaning products off and on, mainly just for convenience factors so I don’t have to sprint to another area of the Half-Acre Homestead when I need to clean. For the most part I’ve found the Toilet Bowl cleaner and the All-Purpose cleaner to be pleasant smelling and effective at cleaning. The Carpet Stain Remover had a “spotty” track record on our carpets, cleaning half of the stains with a bleaching effect noticeable while the other half of the stains were left untouched.

As for now, we will continue buying green cleaning supplies from the likes of Seventh Generation and Dr. Bronner’s. The rest of the cleaners we will make on our own. It was wonderful to receive a box full of green cleaners as a gift but I would recommend not buying them for lack of effectiveness.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Congratulations to reader Julie K. of Goodyear, Arizona for being randomly selected as the winner of the Lands’ End Polo giveaway. Your new shirts is on the way for your favorite guy!

A special thanks to all of you who entered the contest. Stay tuned to GreenPreferred for future giveaways and feel free to subscribe to my RSS Feed to make it super easy to stay up to date.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Ever since I was just a little guy, I was a true prepster. My Mom dressed me in tiny polo shirts that over the years, grew with me. Whether it was Lacoste or Abercrombie, polo shirts have been a staple of my wardrobe through high school and into my current thirty-something years. I’m guessing they’ll be with me for the rest of my life but not just because I like them.

I think polo shirts are one of the most utilitarian yet stylish pieces of clothing a guy could have. The short sleeves and collar can take you from business casual to active sporty to date night all with little effort. That’s perfect for the Dad on the go.

One quintessential brand of polo that I’m proud to have in my collection is Lands’ End and their new Mesh Polo can’t be beat. The fabric of many well-made polo shirts can often be heavy and stiff. The new LE Mesh Polo is made from a hefty fabric but it’s also soft which is a big plus in my book. The seams and yoke of the shirt (two places that can often rub you raw if you’re not wearing a high-quality polo shirt) are specially finished to feel extra soft on your skin. Lands’ End has also developed a no-curl collar that lays flat wash after wash.

I’ve been wearing my new LE Mesh Polo for a couple weeks now. I picked a bold summer color called “Soft Orange” and have been rocking it with a new pair of blue and orange plaid shorts that Homestead Hottie picked up for me as a birthday gift. Not only does the polo truly look great but it feels wonderful too. It’s already endured a couple of sauna-like southern Indiana summer days and I didn’t feel like I was being suffocated by an entire roll of fabric. The polo really does hold up well in the wash and the treatment to the color is truly one of the finest improvements to the polo. Folded polo collars are honestly one of my biggest pet peeves with my favorite style of shirt.

If you’re still on the fence about what to pick up your Dear ‘ol Dad, you should think about one of Lands’ End New Mesh Polo Shirts. It’s a remarkable value for a preppy wardrobe piece any guy should have. Even better than buying one, how about trying to win one? I will be giving away one of Lands’ End New Mesh Polo shirts to one lucky reader this next week. Leave a comment on this post, telling me why you would like to win a Lands’ End Mesh Polo shirt. One lucky winner will be drawn at random on Thursday, June 23rd at 9pm CDT and have a Mesh Polo in their choice of size shipped to them. Good luck!

Bonus Entries:

• Tweet a link to my contest and post another comment on this blog post with the direct link to your post
• Share my contest on your Facebook page. Post your username and a link as another comment on this blog post
• Write your own blog entry related to Father’s Day, sharing a link to my contest. Post a link to your post as a comment below.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Lands’ End and received a polo shirt to facilitate my review, one to giveaway, and a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

Popularity: 15% [?]