If you are a busy mom like me, you tend to struggle come dinner time.  I know I do.  If you don’t plan ahead, you never seem to have the right ingredients and you end up ordering out (which costs so much more!).  The Month Of Meals e-book has some awesome advice to get yourself out of that rut.  This book will help you stay home every night and not spend over $200 in groceries on dinner. I love how the Month Of Meals book not only gives me dinner ideas for a month, but they also give you a shopping list.  If you stick to the list, you will walk out of the grocery store spending less.  Now, there are some things in the book that I know my family won’t eat.  Those are the nights I will substitute my own idea.  I love how this book teaches you to plan ahead.  They have print out lists for each week.  They also have a shopping list for all the other things you will need throughout the week.  The majority of the recipes are easy to make (which is right up my alley) and they require things that you should have in your house already.  I also love that some of the meals are able to be frozen, so you have some meals for later on too!  There are some great tips in here too (though I did know about the one that says don’t go to the grocery store hungry).  If you are looking for a great book to help you in the kitchen, then check out  A Month Of Meals.  There is an 8 week money back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose checking it out!  However, the book does pay for itself on your first grocery shopping trip!

I have two of the hottest presents this year for kids.

Want to be the best present giver ever?  If you have any little girls you need to buy for this Christmas, the Hannah Montana Glitter Studio is sure to be a winner.  Now, the ages say 6 and up.  However, my 4 year old had a blast with this.  It has over 100 pieces to it.  There is everything from shimmer and shine art glaze to stencils to markers to message card.  There is even Hannah Montana stationary!  My personal favorite has to be the watercolors tray that is in the shape of a guitar.  Any Hannah Montana fan would love this!  All moms will love this, because it is all washable!

Another favorite this year will be the Sour Candy Factory. As an adult, I even want to play with this.  This kit includes everything you need to make the most sour candy possible.  You get a star, heart and sports molds.  You get lollipop sticks, a dropper for liquid sweets, and three over the top flavors:  sour grape, rockin’ raspberry, and wild watermelon.  Lastly, you get what holds the candy together:  corn syrup, gelatin, and citric acid.  Mom doesn’t need to run out and get anything.  Some of the candy you can make includes lollipops, liquid candy, and even squishy homemade marshmallows!

If you need something for the kid who has everything, both of these will make great gifts!

As many of you may know, the majority of my friends and family live about four hours away from me. That means, that it is a long distance phone call for me to talk to them. When I found out about Tokbox, I was pretty excited to try it out.   Now, this is super easy to use.  I tried it out with a few people, and they were all impressed with the clarity of both the image and the audio.  I’ve tried other programs before (**cough**yahoo messenger **cough**) that the video was choppy.  When you’ve got little kids using these programs (which I have Madison talk to her cousins with it), they don’t understand the choppiness.  Mom doesn’t really care for it either.  However, there was no choppiness, no lagging, and really I have no complaints about Tokbox.  It took me less than 5 minutes to sign up for the service and get a chat started with one of my friends.  Now, the coolest part is that you both don’t even need to have a webcam (though the person initiating the call does I think).  Once you have your account set up, all you have to do is hit invite, and it will give you a link to pass onto the person you want to talk to.  You can even put this on your blog and/or social network profiles.  Then your visitors can click “Push To Talk” and connect to you in real time.  I’m not adding it here, because I really don’t think you want to listen to screaming kids which is usually how my day goes.  You can even record a video and email it someone too!

If you are looking to connect online, TokBox is the way to do it.  The clarity of the video and the audio can’t be beat, and it is so easy to use!

I love Lands End.  They have some of the greatest products.  They are priced great for the quality you get.  In case you don’t know, Lands End has more than just clothes.  I have a Lands End jacket (I did a review of it a while back), luggage, and slippers too!

Madison picked out these really cute kid slippers herself. I was leaning more toward some that looked like ice skates, and she was like “no mom, I like the penguins”, so as you see, she won that argument. We were in the market for some slippers for all of us for the basement. As you may know, we remodeled and put down tile on the floor.  However, that tile gets really, really, really cold, and it hasn’t gotten below 0 yet.  Also, my house is pretty much all hardwood floors.  Socks don’t work well, because everyone ends up slipping and sliding and falling all over.  Madison told me they were super warm and then makes me touch her sweaty feet when she shows me (the joys of being a mom).

Now, Mommy took care of herself too. I picked up a pair of these travel slippers.  They are extra flexible for easy packing and are super soft.  They also have a slip resistant outsole.  Since I go to quite a few conferences, these will come in really handy.  Also, I have been using them around the house.  These also save my feet from my ice cold floors (both upstairs and downstairs).  My husband is liking them since I am not sticking my ice cold feet on him anymore.

Another piece we have added to our travel arsenal is this wheeled duffel bag. Can I tell you how awesome it is? Without anything in it, it is small enough to fit under my bed. Space is it a premium in my house, so that is so helpful! It also comes in extremely helpful when we go up to visit my parents. We are trying to get 4 people in two tiny bedrooms, so space is limited there too!  It is made out of denier ballistic nylon which is resistant to tears, abrasion, stains, and moisture.  Basically, it wil take a lickin’ and still look great!  You can even get it monogrammed!

Now, all I know you want to know how to get your hands on this stuff, so I am having a giveaway. The winner gets to pick which item he/she wants! Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. I want to know what you want and why!
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

<a href="http://lisareviews.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png" border="0" alt="Lisa Reviews" /></a>

This giveaway will end on December 5 at 8:00 pm CST is available to US residents only. Good luck!

I know you’ve all been reading my Christmas gift guide and a lot of the awesome giveaways I’ve been doing.  I’ve got another great giveaway to pass along to you.  I did a post about the Presto printer that I gave to my mom and how much I love it.  Please read my post to see how awesome it is and why you need to get this for any non tech people in your life.  Now, I want to give one of you this same printer with 3 month free service! Yes, I am serious.  Here’s what you need to do:

1. Leave a comment on this post. Check out my Presto post and also Presto’s website.  Why do you want this?  What features appeal to you the most?
2. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify.
3. Stumble this post. If you don’t know what Stumble Upon is, please read Lori’s post at Blogging Cents. She explains it extremely well.
4. Add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

For 5 additional entries,

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.
3. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed
4. Add my badge to your sidebar:

<a href="http://lisareviews.com"><img src="http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk258/blm03_photos/125ad-1.png" border="0" alt="Lisa Reviews" /></a>

This giveaway will end on December 4 at 8:00 pm CST is available to US residents only. Good luck!