Product Review: Oneida Blue 16-Piece Reflections Dinnerware Set

Below is the review I wrote for my new plates (see previous posts here and here) on Walmart.com

Beautiful Dishes from Walmart!!, 03/27/2008 By TheMommyJournal, Houston, TX Product Attributes: Value for price paid: Meets Expectations: Features: Durability: Appearance: I originally was looking at buying a set of dishes from Target that I was in love with. When those were discontinued before I could purchase them I looked ALL over to find another set of dishes I could love (read IKEA, Linens-n-Things, other major dept stores, etc.). Never would have thought that I would have found such beautiful dishes of such great quality at such a low price. Now, I’m even more in love with these plates than I ever was with the ones from Target AND these plates are both dishwasher and microwave safe where the other ones weren’t.  One distinction for those who are ordering these online, the dishes are darker blue than the pictures show - which was fine with me since I prefer the darker color anyway. I also did the Ship to Store method and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it all was. I even had a young man offer to help me take the large, heavy boxes out to my car. Overall, GREAT experience and I’m thoroughly in love with this produce. I HIGHLY recommend!

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Earth Hour




A little on the political side, but interesting nonetheless…

Earth Hour

Have you heard about Earth Hour? I just recently stumbled across the idea and have to admit that I’m very intrigued by the whole concept. It basically asks that everyone turn off their lights and any other non-essential electronics between the time of 8-9 pm in whatever time zone you live in. The idea is that we would all reduce our carbon footprint simultaneously and have a greater positive impact on the environment. Here’s a great before and after pic of Sydney, Australia (where it all started last year) and the article I read that started it all for me (click on the pic to get there).

Earth Hour’s website has a list of suggestions of what to do for that hour in the dark. Of course, the best suggestion I heard was to get outside and SEE the stars. Especially in cities where a lot of people and companies are participating, you might ACTUALLY be able to see the glow of the Milky Way, or at least a few stars here and there. In fact, there’s even an movement called, National Dark-Sky Week, that says that 90 percent or more of all Americans younger than 18 have never seen the glow of the Milky Way galaxy with their own eyes!

Whatever you decide to do, it’s a great opportunity to discuss environmental issues with your kiddos and to just do something ‘out of the norm’ for some family time. Have a Happy Earth Hour!!

My Dishes Saga Continued

Just figured I’d update you on my dishes saga since I bored you with the original story.

I went to Target yesterday with intent of buying my dishes – you know, the ones that I wanted, not the ones that KATE wanted… I get there only to discover they’ve cleared out the Global Bazaar section and are bringing in patio furniture and Easter stuff in that section of the store now. Great. So, don’t panic, just go look where all the other plates are. Do they still have the ones that I want?

No. Of course not. So, I go home dejected. Again.

Shawn mentions the possibility of buying them online. Hope reborn! I go online and… sadly, they are ‘not available’ anymore and the serving dishes that match are on clearance. Boo. Sad again.

Since most of my ‘dishes money’ is cash, I decided to widen the search to ALL dinnerware Target and otherwise. After much searching on many sites including IKEA, Linens-n-things, other major department stores, etc and still not finding the ‘right’ ones that called my name, I went to Walmart.com expecting NOTHING of course. It IS Walmart after all. What kind of good quality, trendy dishes are going to be at Walmart?

These!!!

I can’t wait to go to Walmart and check them out in person. And maybe even BRING THEM HOME!

Don’t worry. I won’t take Kate with me this time!

My Dishes Saga

For my birthday, back in January, my parents gave me a large bill of currency and gave me the strict instruction to use it on myself.  Not my children.  Not the bills.  (What does this say about me that they felt the need to give this instruction?  Never mind - I think I know.  I think we ALL know.)

The funny thing is that I had just been thinking the day before about how tired I was of my everyday dinnerware and how I’d LOVE to replace it if I had the money.  I’ve had my same plates, bowls and teacups since Shawn and I got married in 1995 (you do the math) and even when I got them, they weren’t what I would have called my ‘perfect’ set of dishes.  Don’t get me wrong - they were beautiful and they were great quality Mikasa plates, but what I really would have gotten if given the opportunity would have been handmade pottery.  That’s just my own personal style.

Anyways, I had just seen the coolest sets of dishes at Target in their Global Bazaar section and had been drooling over them when the large bill made it’s way into my hands.  Divine Providence. Continue reading…

Dining Room Organization Challenge

I was browsing some of my favorite blogs the other day and ran across OrgJunkie’s latest fun. While I love that there are others out there that are as ‘freakish’ as I am about organizing, Laura’s posts seem to be some of the best. She’s now doing a monthly challenge to all her readers called Org Junkie’s Monthly Organizing Round-Up. The month of February was a challenge to organize some portion or all of your kitchen. Unfortunately I missed the deadline on that one, even though I did just recently reorganize some of my kitchen cabinets. (I had to do something to house my new beautiful plates!)

But, I’m SO in on March. This month’s challenge has been the dining room. While we don’t have a formal dining room anymore (it’s now a playroom), the area in the kitchen where we eat was starting to get over-run by my daughter’s craft supplies. Since she’s a budding artist (she takes after her daddy), we have a little bit of everything and somehow it’s always on the kitchen table and the windowseat behind it. Here’s a ‘before’ pic for your amusement.

So, my goal this month has been to clean up the windowseat and therefore all the craft supplies and move them somewhere higher (where the 18 month old can’t get ahold of crayons to write on the floors and walls with) and more organized in ONE space.

Check back in with me in about a week and I’ll show you the finished project. Or, at least the ‘finished-for-now’ project. Because, seriously, is any project truly and thoroughly completed? Isn’t there always just ONE more thing we want to do to make it perfect? Or maybe that’s just the German perfectionism in me coming out…

Oh, and don’t you want to join me and all the other ‘freaks’ that are organizing their dining rooms this month? Add a comment below about what your next project is going to be!

Under-bed Storage for Kids’ Clothes

After my sister read my post about sending Ethan to get a pair of pants, she emailed me and asked me if I’d thought about using MeckMom’s solution to the problem of him emptying his drawers.

I’m here to say that I L-O-V-E my sister for reminding me of this idea. And I L-O-V-E MeckMom for having this idea in the first place. And I’m going to the store tomorrow to buy under-bed boxes for all 3 of my kids so I can try this out.

I’ll let you know how it works. In the mean time, check out this link to MeckMom’s ingenious idea to keep my kids from emptying their drawers after I send them to get dressed!

Go Get Some Pants, Please…

I’m trying to make my 3 year old little boy a little more self-sufficient. And since he’s REFUSING to potty train right now (very frustrating), I’ve decided that he can learn how to get himself dressed at least. I seem to remember Kate being able to do that quite well by this age and I’m starting to wonder how much of it was because she was a girl and how much of it was because she was the first child…

So, one morning (when we were already running a little late - what else is new?) I told Ethan to go in his room and get out an outfit to wear for the day. He came back with a shirt and shorts (that didn’t match by the way) in his hands. I told him that it was still too cold outside for shorts and could he please take the shorts back to his room and get pants instead. I thought that this was a reasonable request… One that a 3 year old could easily handle… I was wrong.

I got distracted doing other things, brushing teeth with Karis, changing diapers, etc… About 10 minutes later I made it to his room to check on the pants-getting-efforts. What I saw when I walked in the room made me hit the roof! I was all ready to gripe the boy out when I figured I should take a deep breath. And that’s when I decided that instead of losing my cool, I should run and grab the camera…

Ethan had not only completely unloaded his top drawer of short sleeved shirts and shorts, and not only the middle drawer of long sleeve shirts and pant, but also the bottom drawer of clothes that don’t fit anymore. The pile of clothes on the floor was almost as big as him!

After a quick discussion about how to find clothes WITHOUT dumping them ALL on the ground, we grabbed some pants to go with his shirt and got out the door before those clothes could suck me in…

Barnes & Noble Kids’ Sale

Be sure to get in on the fun Kids’ Sale on Barnes & Noble’s family-friendly site. You can save up to 40% on thousands of toys, games, books, DVDs, music, and other great items to educate and entertain.

Promotion Dates: February 29 - March 20