We hold on so tightly, because we’re terrified of loss. We hold on till our hands bleed. And in that self-shattering persistence, we fail to see the answer: Just let go.
-Yasmin Mogahed
It’s funny how we see life sometimes… I sometimes look at my day to day as a way to hold on to what I cannot change and do everything in my power to try and change it. But, sometimes I have to remember that it’s not always a good thing to hold on to what you have no way to make different… and you must Just Let Go. I hope you like the Quote of the Day! Happy Saturday.
A few weeks ago my sons and I went out to a dinner date with a family member visiting from afar. As we sat at the table, my Aunt asked… “Hmm… do your children not have those iApple things?” I giggled, but explained to her that while they each have their own tablets they are limited on time of use, where they use them and how often. As much as we love technology in our household, family time and hands on things are much more important and I’m glad my husband and I are able to instill that in our children. After dinner, I thought back to some memories from years ago. As a child my parents always made science things so interesting and I remember going on little adventures at the local park with my dad with a magnifying glass and clear dishes to hold our specimens in after finding them. As we got older and my parents could afford it, my siblings and I would get really cool kits that allowed us to dig up dinosaur-like bones, bugs and mineral rocks and we enjoyed those as well.
Because of these memories it always excites me to be able to offer these similar things to my children. My sons and I spend a lot of time together and because of this, much of what we do is explore and learn about History, Science and all the wonders our beautiful Earth has to offer. But, with the rainy season upon us – our explorations have been dwindled quite a bit. That’s why I am so excited that there are cool Kits like the one I’m about to talk to you about. Discover With Dr. Cool Real Insect Excavation Kit has been a fun choice for rainy days and I am excited to place another order for other kits also available.
The Discover With Dr. Cool’s Kit retails for about $12 on their website and comes with everything you need to dig up some really cool bugs. Included in the kit is your Digging Block (which is disguised as a bright green beetle), Excavation Tools, and Adventure Guide, an Activity Booklet and 3 Real Specimens. Please note that some of the items in the kit are considered choking hazards and not recommended for children under 3.
The kit is completely hands-on and my three boys each took turns scraping away at the beetle till they revealed what was encased inside. Just like archaeologists, they took their time to clean away the dust and debris till they found what they were on the search for. I was a bit worried that with their little excavation they may mutilate the specimens while looking but each one is secure in a glass shell.
The boys took about an hour to get through the entire beetle to reveal their finds. Though I know they thoroughly enjoyed it and they took their time because this was truly an adventure to discover. My ten year old (Kevin) loved taking part in this with his little bros (Luke & Isaiah) who are just five years old and together they made this an afternoon of fun and discovery.
After making their way to through the exterior of the beetle, they slowly started to find the glass encased bugs through out the body of the beetle. What I enjoyed about this kit is there were no sharp edges to any of the digging tools. It was as simple as laying down some newspaper and clean up was just as easy as throwing it all away.
The boys didn’t have to dig too deep as most of the bug specimens were found through out the top part of the beetle. I do suggest that if you have asthma or if you have sensitivity to dust to use a mask as it seemed like this was a clay like brick and there was quite a bit of dust. We made sure to open our windows so the boys air and breathing was not compromised.
What I think is probably the coolest part is the end result. Each bug is encased in a cool glass marble and they are REAL Genuine bugs. The kit includes a guide with information on each bug included in the kit and it was so cool to see the different colors these bugs had on their bodies. The activity booklets also include challenge puzzles and games that the boys enjoyed taking part in.
At such an affordable price tag – this Discover Dr. Cool Real Bug Dig Kit includes all the makings for hours of fun and education for any little person (or even adult, since I truly enjoyed myself as well) and offers such great hands on experience for children. The box does state that the products itself are non-toxic, but I do suggest like I said before to take caution with the dust from excavation.
The boys and I are excited to try out other kits available all for about the same price range. With technology taking our World by storm, sometimes we forget all about the wonders that our Earth offers. While the internet opens up our eyes to things we can’t see or touch immediately, I’m so glad that there are still great things like this to keep our children wondering about science and more.
Have you heard of Discover Dr. Cool before? What are some interesting things you may remember about exploring from your childhood? Do you have children and is this something you think they’ll be interested in. Thanks for reading 😉
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.
Contrary to popular belief, Hawaii does get cold during the winter months, in fact – some of our islands even experience a little bit of snow fall. While…
As a child, the holiday season was always my favorite time of year… and it still is. The scents of delicious food cooking all day, pies and sweet delectable desserts, coffee and teas and everything in between. Many scents also evoke the memories of my childhood, reminding me that while we didn’t have any money growing up – my parents always made this time special for us and I do my best to translate those memories in our family traditions today. Since we are still a few days away from really starting the 24 hour cooking sessions the holidays may bring, I love adding candles to our scenery to add warmth and a waft of scents in the air to get us a bit festive. As a child we didn’t have many candles in our house unless the electricity was out because my mom lost her house to a candle fire when she was little and my siblings and I also have asthma and it made it difficult to breath. Now that I’m older, I still don’t use candles often due to the asthma, but after trying these Old Factory Candles from the Coffee Shop Set, I’m definitely impressed.
Each Old Factory candle is handmade in the USA and retails for about $30 (currently on sale for $25.00) for a set of three candles. Available in 12 sets – I got Coffee Shop which includes Coffee Bean, Hazel Nut and Chai Tea.
Each candle is made of natural soy wax, cotton paper wicks and pure fragrance oils. Candles are guaranteed to burn clean and even and true to scent for 20 hours. Since the fragrance oils are pure, you may notice that the scent is not as strong as a traditional scented candle (or at least that is my opinion – but I’ve been sick lately so it could just be that I’m stuffed up) though I don’t think that to be a bad thing since I like a light fragrance, not something to overpowering. I am definitely loving that the candles are burning evenly which makes it easy to light. Each candle is of white wax and labeled with the designated scent at the bottom of the jar.
Since my family and I are asthmatics, we do not burn candles in our house very often due to the lack of oxygen that can be in the air while the candle is burning. It is however something we enjoy to do during the colder months and holiday season since it not only makes the house smell yummy but it also adds an essence of warmth to the home. I have been enjoying the clean burning of these candles and noticed that my family did not have issues with breathing while we had a candle lit. The scent lasts and I love the light scent of coffee, hazel nut or chai tea through out the home.
With a variety of fragrances from sexy and sultry to holiday themed and delicious delectables, you can easily find a scent range that will fit in your home and if you don’t have a fire place, this is a sure way to add a little warmth to your house. I especially love the subtle jar as it will allow you to easily match this to any theme or home decor for any time of year. Since you get three candles, this could easily make a great stocking stuffer or Holiday gift for someone who loves candles.
Looking to give the entire set away? Simple tie a cute little ribbon or bow around the box and your set to go. The box holds all three candles snug and ready for gift delivery. I personally use the box to store my candles when they are not in use, since I don’t like to keep candles around because the twins are so young I would rather keep it out of reach.
Have you tried Old Factory Candles before? If so – what is your favorite scent from this brand? If you haven’t and love candles, comment and let me know what your favorite candle scents are.
When it comes to organization and keeping dates in order, I’m a stickler for planners and keeping track of dates and appointments on paper or via technology. Sometimes…
I am pretty behind in sharing my monthly favorites. Sadly I actually filmed a video for August favorites, uploaded it to YouTube and never got around to sharing it… so I decided I would delete it. Honestly, do you know how many times that happens… I have so many videos I upload without release and realize 2 months or more later that the information I talked about or my thoughts on the subject are no longer accurate. lol Oh well, C’est la vie! You can consider this my September Favorites… but it’s really a combination of products that I’ve been liking lately. Without further adieu, let’s get busy. lol
Don’t you just love it when you were busy trying out new products in the month that you have a laundry load of items to discuss? Yup, that was me the last few months. Check out my video embedded below or click here to watch it directly on YouTube.
If you enjoyed my video – please subscribe 😀 The products mentioned in the video that are included in current favorites are:
Favorite Song -Taylor Swift – Shake It Off
Favorite Apps – Seahorse App and Trello
Favorite Food – Starbuck’s Pumpkin Spiced Latte or Salted Caramel Latte, Nestle Crunch Limited Edition Girl Scout Cookie Candy Bars. (Check out the boys and I as we discuss our first impressions and taste tests of these goodies in this video.)
Favorite Makeup Palettes – Lorac Pro2 and Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette
Favorite Face products – Olay Total Effects 7 in One CC Cream, Benefit Hoola Bronzer and Wet n Wild’s Fergie Centerstage Shimmer Palette in Photo Bomb.
Favorite Eyeshadow – MAC’s Blue Brown Pigment
Favorite Lip Products – Urban Decay Revolution Lipstick in Rapture, Jordana Easy Liner Lip Liner in Cabaret, NYX Matte Lip Creams in Instanbul and Monte Carlo, J.Cat Wonder Lip Paint in Queen of Hearts, L.A. Girls Glazed Lip Paints in Daring.
Favorite Mascara – Jordana Best Lash Extreme Volumizing Mascara
Favorite Eye Shadow bases – Maybelline Color Tattoo Leather in Creamy Beige and Laura Mercier Caviar Stick Eye Color in Plum
Overall I think my current favorites include a combination of past loves and favorites and new ones. I can’t wait to see what October Favorites looks like. Hope you’re enjoying your Fall months.
I’m all about exercise and staying active, cardio and weight resistance, but I also love using resistance bands to help strengthen my ankles. About 6 years ago I…
Happy Sunday Love bugs. I’m stopping in to say hi a bit, but I also really want to start blogging daily (if at all possible) and I miss my Sunday Letters posts. Yesterday I started a weird aching pain in my ear, near the cartilage that seems to force itself into my ear and half of my head. It’s kind of an odd pressure but it has been causing me some crucial migraines today since waking up this morning. Because of this, I got a terribly late start and I’m not too happy about that… because that means, things on my “To Do” list have really taken a back seat today.
So how is everyone doing today and how was your weekend? There are so many things happening this week and I’m very excited for them. While today was super hot and humid and muggy, I am looking forward to cooler weather this Fall. Hawaii doesn’t really experience season changes and unfortunately we don’t have leaves that really change colors as Autumn approaches (that makes me sad), but you can certainly feel the difference in the breeze and chill factor. This coming weekend my husband and I make 17 years together as a couple… our “Going Out” or “Dating” anniversary. We don’t have anything planned because his week at work is pretty hectic, but nonetheless, I’m excited for the day. And, Grey’s Anatomy’s new season is just days away… trust me when I say this ex Medical Surgical Tech can’t wait to watch all the drama unfold. lol
I also have been seeing all the rave for the new iPhones, lol. I own a Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and I’ve had it now for almost two years and my phone is still going strong with no problems. I have a lot of iPhone friends, but I think I’ll stick with the original “piece of toast” phone… and know that when it’s time to upgrade, I’ll be sticking with another Android phone, probably another Samsung. I know that people have their favorites, but I have never been a fan of iPhone or iTunes… I’m Pro Android all the way. lol Just figured I’d throw that in. If you are a friend of mine that loves iphone, I have nothing against ya. lol j/k
The Annual Pumpkin Patch should be in full swing soon, so I know you’ll be seeing some photos of us there when we take the boys. I’m excited! The twins will be visiting the patch with their classmates for Pre-school, but every year we take them to pick our carving pumpkin. I can’t wait to go. 🙂
Hoping you all had a wonderful weekend and wishing you a fabulous rest of your week!
