I hadn’t really thought about it – because I don’t have to buy light bulbs that often – but we’ve never changed any of those bulbs!  They’re going strong at almost 4 years!  So, I decided that it was time to make a change and make all of our light bulbs turn green!

Before the switch, anytime I bought light bulbs, I always bought the GE Reveal.  I liked the crisper light and didn’t mind to pay a bit more for those bulbs.  I had it in my mind, and my husband especially had it in his mind, that it would cost a fortune to replace all of the light bulbs in our house to the GE Energy Smart bulbs.  It might have a few years ago, but it seems that these Energy Smart bulbs have really dropped in price and are extremely affordable – especially when you factor in how long they last AND how much money they’ll save you on your energy bill!

I went around the house checking out all of the light bulbs that I would need to switch over.  I was so happy to discover that only about 1/2 of the light fixtures around the inside AND outside of our house were already Energy Smart bulbs!  I was 1/2 to having all green light bulbs already!  I headed to our local Walmart with my list and a small bag of a couple of light bulbs that weren’t standard size to get what I needed!

Honestly, I was quite overwhelmed when I got to the lighting aisles.  I would really recommend doing a bit of research before you go to the store.  You can check out GELighting.com, which is a great resource that I found after I shopped.  I thought because I had bought Energy Smart bulbs once before, I would easily know what I wanted.  But I think there are a lot more Energy Efficient choices on the market today.

One thing you’ll definitely notice as you’re shopping for green-er bulbs is the price.  It’s definitely dropped over the past few years and you’ll reap more monetary rewards by buying in bulk.  GE wants you to save money on your energy bill AND help the environment… I feel like it’s an encouragement to do a makeover on your light bulbs!  Not only will you see great money savings by buying bulbs in larger packages, but you can also save another $2.00 with this coupon on your GE Energy Smart Purchase at Walmart!

I spent around $130 to switch out the remaining outdated bulbs to GE Energy Smart light bulbs!  I was very happy with that cost and am really excited to see the change in our energy bill.  I’ll have to wait a couple of months to actually see that, but there’s a fun calculator on the GE Lighting website that will estimate your energy savings.  I put in my information and… I’m estimated to save $162.35 annually and $889.60 savings over the life of the bulbs!!!

In addition to switching your light bulbs to more energy efficient ones like the GE Energy Smart bulbs, you can also do little things to help the environment {and your energy bill} like:

• Turn off your lights when they’re not really necessary.
• Get motion lights for outside so your lights aren’t on continuously.
• Use timers if you like lights on before you go to bed – the timers will turn them off and you won’t even know it!

I am so excited that all of our light bulbs are green now – and I can’t wait to start seeing more green in our bank account, thanks to lower energy bills!  I’ll be posting again in a month, letting you know if we did see a change in our energy bill or not.  In the meantime, be sure to check out GE on Facebook and Twitter if you’re interested in making your light bulbs green too!

You can see more pictures of my shopping experience with GE Energy Smart Bulbs and more in my Google+ Album!

I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #CBias #SocialFabric

• Excessive drooling – even more than normal for her.
• Chewing on her hands, more than normal.  She even dives at them to try to bite them harder.
• Fussy more than normal
• Loves chewing on the teethers that can be frozen.

She wears an amber teething necklace, but I’m a bit concerned that it isn’t helping like it seemed to help Sophia.  It’s actually Sophia’s necklace from when she was a baby so I wonder if they have a shelf life {does anyone know?}.

Although she hasn’t sprouted any teeth yet, I know it’s only a matter of time.  Actually, Sophia would show signs of teething up to 2 months before a tooth would actually come through.  It was so odd because she would have all of the above symptoms and they would just stop.  When they stopped – and she acted normal – you could bet that the tooth would come through in a few days!

While I was on the Earth’s Best website the other day, I saw that they now have a new Organic Teething Gel.  I haven’t had the chance to try it, but I’ve definitely been looking for it in stores when I think about it.

What do you/did you do for your teething children to help relieve their pain and itchy gums?

I’ve got a fun and fast giveaway for you today!  If you’re a blogger, small business owner, creative Mama or Papa, or someone who is interested in promoting anything… you’re gonna want to enter this one!

UPrinting is giving one So Easy Being Green reader 250 Customizable Business Cards!  I’ve been thinking about printing up some business cards since So Easy Being Green has started getting a bit more busy and their prices and choices are some of the best that I’ve scoped out so far!

Think you have no need for Business Cards?  Think again!  Other than the originally intended purpose, you could use them for:

• Tickets {think fun for your kids!}
• Decorative Bookmark
• Hang Tags for Merchandise
• Gift Tags
• Baby Announcement
• Save the Date – Wedding, Birthday – ANYTHING!
• Anything else you can think of!?!

Win It:  One So Easy Being Green reader is going to win 250pcs Customizable Die-cut Business Cards.  You’ll be able to choose from the following styles: 2×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×2″ Rounded Corners, 1.75×3.5″ Rounded Corners, 2×3.5″ Leaf, 2×3.5 Rounded one corner, 2×3.5″ Half Circle Side, 2×3.5″ Oval, 2.5″ Circle 14pt Cardstock Gloss / Matte / High Gloss (UV), or 13pt Cardstock Uncoated.  If you have won a giveaway from UPrinting in the last 6 months, you are not eligible to win.

This giveaway is open to US residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

“You should assume that the owner of this blog will receive free print products in exchange for the post. Any and all reviews posted are based solely on my own experience and may be atypical. Please practice due diligence in making any related purchase decisions. Interested to hold a giveaway like this? Please sign up here.”

I am so excited to introduce you to BeginAgain… a toy shop full of imaginative toys and fun things for children to enjoy and learn while playing!  When you visit their website, you’ll immediately notice that it’s broken into categories “awish: a – artist, w – writer, i – inventor, s – sportster, h – hero”.  All of the toys and products in the categories fit perfectly!

Welcome to the BeginAgain workshop! This is the place where we tell you all about us. To start, we are an imaginative toy company located in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Created by toymakers David Bowen and Chris Clemmer–two of the co-founders of Sprig Toys–BeginAgain is focused on thoughtful product design and imaginative storytelling for today’s kids. It is our goal to inspire children with stories of invention, adventure, and good old-fashioned fun. BeginAgain toys teach through play and nurture the development of the whole child.

I had a hard time picking a product because there are some really fun ones, but to go along with our Splish Splashing theme in the Summer Splash Giveaway Event, I definitely had no choice when it came to the fun Bathtub Ball – from the hero category!

This durable natural rubber play set is great for play in and out of water. The characters bubble with excitement as they sink in the water. This toy is perfect for the beach, bath, or pool.
Going on vacation, take this set on the go! The bathtub ball has storage built in. The rubber shark tanks doubles as clean up storage!
This toy set is dishwasher safe.

We just went to the aquarium recently and Sophia is obsessed with sharks so I knew she would love it.  This set is so much fun for imaginative play.  I do have to share this little story.  Sophia played with the set as soon as it came in the mail yesterday – she couldn’t wait for her bath.  She was playing in the floor and I heard her say, “Shark you need to eat.  You can eat Barbie.”  OMG!  It was so cute but I then assured her that sharks don’t eat people or Barbies – but too cute, right!?

She had a ton of fun with them all in the bath later that night too.  They all have holes in the bottom that create fun bubbles and help them dry without getting mildew in them.  They all smell strongly of natural rubber, which is actually a good thing {once the smells subsides a bit}.  I love that I can store them all in the ball too!  It’ll be easy to bring it inside and out without much trouble for Splish Splashing anywhere!

Buy It:  You can purchase the Bathtub Ball {with the 2 Sharks, Octopus, and Diver} on the BeginAgain website for $22.00.  Be sure to check out all of their other fun toys and products while you’re there!

Win It:  One lucky So Easy Being Green reader has a chance to win their very own Bathtub Ball in the Summer Splash Prize Package that is live right now!

Here at So Easy Being Green, you have a chance at winning TWO great Prize Packages:

To read more about each of these great prizes and Sponsors, read their full reviews here:

EcoVessel Products
Re-Usable Sandwich and Snack Bags from Bugbaby Designs
HAPPYFAMILY Baby Products
Tommee Tippee explora Lil sippee spill proof trainer cups

 To read more about each of these great prizes and Sponsors, read their full reviews here:

EatSmart Precision Pro Digital Kitchen Scale
Eco Home Store Green Kitchen Products
EcoFoil

Both of these Giveaways are open to US residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

**Remember, these posts are all about menstruation and being comfortable with the topic and your body – if you’re not interested, please skip this post!

I did it.  I went an entire cycle using only cloth and no disposable products… and I’m getting ready to do it again!  Although I am dreading it, I mean really – who enjoys the monthly visitor – I don’t dread buying disposable products and throwing money out with the trash!

I really encourage anyone who is on the fence about using cloth pads to try them out.  You can always start with a panty liner or two and see how it goes from there.

For the most part, my first cycle with all cloth went fine.  I don’t have a gigantic stash of pads so I had to wash every other day, but that’s recommended anyways for sanitary reasons.

It was no big deal for me to use the cloth pads when I was outside of the house.  They wrap and snap nicely to fit easily into a purse, or the diaper bag in my case, and I took along a very small wet/dry bag to keep them in.

Overall, they are pretty comfortable.  They are bulky, but not as bulky as you might think – probably as much as disposable pads.  If you have previously been using tampons, getting used to cloth pads will definitely be a little more work, but definitely worth it.

In my next post in the Mama Cloth Series, we’ll be discussing how to care for them:  Prep, Laundry Routines, Storage, and more!

It’s definitely encouraged her to try new things and eat more of her good foods.  We’ve also been talking about growing bigger and being able to ride the big rides at Dollywood {this has turned into a huge motivator for her}.  She always repeats, “I’m getting bigger.  I’m eating my vegables!”  {I had to type it out how she says vegetables and at this point it’s so cute I don’t want to correct her – anyone else do that!?}

Earth’s Best has some great tips too that I wanted to share with you!  After reading these, I realize that I definitely need to offer certain foods more – like have broccoli at least 3 times a week so that it becomes a regular food that she sees often.

Toddlers enjoy playing with their food; it is a part of learning about it. Here are some helpful tips for encouraging your toddler to eat healthy from Earth’s Best:

Offer a wide variety of wholesome foods in a supportive, non-pressured setting and according to a regular, predictable schedule.
Present new foods at least twice a week.
Offer new foods along with old favorites.
Serve small, toddler-sized portions to not overwhelm your child.
Foods should be easy to chew and be bite-sized.
Provide snacks that are fun and interactive for your child, like Earth’s Best Organic™ Pop Snax.

As their website states… you can’t stop bottles from falling over – but you can save money, time from cleaning up spills, and your carpet!  The SpilSTOP caps are genius and so simple that you’ll wonder why you {or I} hadn’t already thought of these caps!

The original SpilSTOP cap was the first in the SpilSTOP line.  It’s a simple plastic cap – comes in a ton of fun colors – and fits on a variety of bottles and drink bottle types.  The caps work with a regular straw and really stop spills even if the bottle falls completely on it’s side.

My only complaint about the original SpilSTOP’s was the fact that it wouldn’t fit everything.  Well, Jeff {the Engineer and Dad behind this product} has already started taking car of this problem!  The new line of SpilSTOP Sport Caps are now available and have opened up a whole ton of other ways to use your SpilSTOP’s!

Regular SpilSTOP caps fit: Standard baby bottles (Evenflo, Playtex, Dr. Brown’s, Gerber, etc.), 8-oz plastic bottles of Pediasure, Ensure, Glucerna, Equate and Parent’s Choice nutrition drinks, Store-brand nutrition drinks (Wal-Mart, Kroger, Meijer, Target)

NEW SpilSTOP Sport caps fit: Many single-serving bottles of Gatorade, Vitamin Water, Sobe Lifewater, Powerade, Boost, Mott’s juices and more

These caps don’t make claim to make your drinks spill-proof – if a bottle of drink lays on it’s side for an extended amount of time, the drink will come out of the straw, BUT I can totally trust Sophia to walk around the house with a SpilSTOP cap on her drink without worrying about stains on our carpet at all!  What a nice relief for this Mama of 2 who worries about everything!

The SpilSTOP Sport Caps would be a perfect addition to your summer drinks as your kids are running around outside and playing fun, outdoor sports!

Buy It:  The new SpilSTOP Sport Caps come in the same colors, along with a new Bright Colors Pack, as the original SpilSTOP’s.  A single SpilSTOP Sport Cap retails for $2.25 or you can get a fun 3 pack for only $5.99!

Don’t forget to save 15% off your order with the code SEBG15 – expires July 15th and is unique to only So Easy Being Green readers!

Win It:  Right now you can win a 3 pack of SpilSTOP Sport Caps in the Summer Splash Giveaway – Stay tuned for another giveaway coming up soon where 2 more lucky readers will have a chance to win a 3 pack of their own!

Living in east Tennessee is absolutely beautiful – I wouldn’t trade it for anything {unless someone wanted to pay to move our entire family to a house on the beach somewhere nice and warm}.  With the beauty of the trees and mountains comes the dreaded pollen and ragweed seasons, though.  When I was a child, I usually got sick near the end of the school year in mid-May and right at the beginning of the school year in late August.  I never wanted to take shots so I tried to control them with medication.  Although nothing ever really prevented them, I did have help in controlling symptoms.

When I was pregnant, my seasonal allergies totally disappeared – talk about an awesome side effect of pregnancy!  Unfortunately, they have returned with a vengeance.  Not only do I get the sniffle or runny nose, but I get the extreme sore throat, sinus headaches, and even dizziness!  When you have 2 kids under 2 at home by yourself all day long, it makes these symptoms magnified by 100x because all you really feel like doing is sleeping, which doesn’t happen!

So, I decided to try a new allergy medication, Allegra.  This is one brand that I hadn’t tried simply because the others hadn’t given me much relief.  But after a long {but fun} day outside at Dollywood last week, I knew I had to try something new.

I was dared – ok, maybe not dared – but encouraged to show how my experience with Allegra would help me go from Drab to Fab.  Although it’s taking every ounce of “oomph” I have to post this Before “Drab” picture – here goes nothing…

Yep, I’m Drab and feeling every bit of it too.  So, I headed to CVS with both girls in tow because that’s how desperate I was to feel better!

As soon as we walked into the store, everything was decorated for Summer!  I think I’m not the only one looking forward to the end of allergy season and the fun and sun that comes with the Summer Season!  We headed straight over to the Allergy Medications section and spotted Allegra immediately – thanks to the top shelf position and the bright purple box.

I ended up choosing a 5 count box of Allegra since I’ve not had the best experience with other Allergy medications in the past.  I didn’t want to invest a lot before I tried it.  If you’ve already tried Allegra or want to save more money, the 30 count box is on sale for only $17.99 with your CVS card during the entire month of May!

And just because the girls were so good, we did a bit of shopping for them too.  I’m raising a little Lip Gloss Girl in Training!

Along with buying Allegra to make me feel better, I picked up just a couple of beauty products {remember, I’m trying to go from Drab to Fab here} to use when the medicine started to take away the yucky symptoms.  We searched that beauty wall for quite a few minutes before I decided on the essentials: Mineral Powder, Lip Gloss, Mascara, and Nail Polish!

I only spent around $25 for all of these great products!  I was super happy with the prices and all of the great deals – both the Neutrogena Mineral Sheer & Lip Gloss were Buy One, Get One 50% off AND the Sally Hansen Nail Polish had the same deal – with your CVS Card!  I can never pass up a good deal…

I also couldn’t pass up a Mineral Sheer Foundation that contains an SPF.  As a Melanoma Survivor, SPF in products is a huge selling point for me and although I always wear more than a 20SPF, I know it’s already in my makeup for extra protection!

You can check out even more pictures of our whole Shopping Experience in my Google+ Album.

Before we get to the Fab After picture because yes, there is one!  Everyone should head over to the Allergy Makeover Game – it’s a fun way to see how Allegra can help you get over the Allergy blues and gives you a chance to instantly win a $50 CVS Gift Card!  You can play daily throughout the whole month of May!  You can follow Allegra on Twitter and Facebook too – to stay in the know with all their happenings and get other tips and tricks to managing your allergies.

Mother’s Day was yesterday and after taking the Allegra for 4 days, I was so happy that I could actually put on my contacts again and get to feeling a little bit more like myself…

“I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #CBias #SocialFabric

Over 100 blogs have come together to bring you some amazing prizes to help you kick off your summer… with a SPLASH! Each blog is giving away at least $25 worth of prizes, plus we have an awesome grand prize for one very lucky winner. Be sure to hop along to each of the participating blogs because the more giveaways you enter, the more chances you have at winning the Grand Prize!  Thanks to Kid’s Creations one very lucky winner is going to win a Two Ring Adventure Playset valued at $3,598! Made from the highest quality Redwood and loaded with fun activities, this swing set is sure to make this summer one to remember! (Please note that the grand prize is only open to residents of the Continental United States and does not include assembly/installation.)

Here at So Easy Being Green, one lucky reader will win this fun Splish Splashing Prize Package:

A prize package with a fun Bathtub Ball to toss around in your convenient and long-lasting bathtub.  A lovely hooded towel to dry off from splishing and splashing AND a fun pack of SpilSTOP caps to help your child quench their thirst after all the water fun!

To learn more about each of these products, check out my detailed reviews:
The First Years Sure Comfort™ Newborn to Toddler Tub
BeginAgain Bathtub Ball
SpilSTOP Sport Caps
Ahmelie Hooded Towel

This giveaway is open to US residents only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway