Reach, Listerine and America's Toothfairy

Unfortunately, it took me 30 years to get serious about my dental health. I have the silver mouth of fillings to prove it. That is part of the reason why I've been committed to making sure that my children consider taking care of their teeth just as important as eating right and exercising.

I received some great products from Listerine and Reach and my family and I are participating in an "Oral Care Challenge." To complete the challenge, my children and I are to brush, floss and rinse every day, twice a day for three weeks. I learned that while we all know that regular brushing and flossing our teeth is important, rinsing with a therapeutic mouthwash for 30 seconds twice daily, is an additional but essential activity. This helps reach those other parts of the mouth that harbor germs.

 While all the products were great, I am going to highlight my 2 favorite ones. First is the Reach Access Flosser (pictured at left). Shaped like a toothbrush, it makes flossing teeth just as easy as brushing your teeth! Attach one of the disposable floss snap-on heads and you are all set. At my son Jake's last trip to the dentist, we learned that his teeth are too close together & will need to start flossing earlier than say my other son Luke, who has perfectly spaced baby teeth. The Reach Access has been the only way I can get him to floss. He thinks it is fun.

The other product that I love is Listerine's Smart Rinse. While actually part of their kid's line, I think this mouthwash is fun to use regardless of your age. Yup, I called using mouthwash fun. Smart Rinse is an anticavity mouthwash for kids ages six and older (I fall into the "older" category clearly) that helps clean and protect teeth beyond brushing alone. The Magnetic Cleaning Action™ attracts particles—showing you what brushing may have missed. I am not sure how it does it, but it dyes the particles left over in your mouth the color of the mouthwash. I get so excited to see little flecks in the mouthwash when I spit it out - I can go about my day now knowing my mouth is completely clean.

The makers of Listerine and Reach have teamed up with America's Toothfairy to launch "Trick or Treat for America's Toothfairy," a campaign to raise awareness of pediatric dental disease and help provide life changing care to under served children. You can visit www.AmericasToothfairy.org to learn more.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of LISTERINE and REACH and received products to take the Oral Care Challenge. Mom Central Consulting also sent me a Global Giving gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate

My 15 Minutes of Fame - Vaseline Intensive Rescue Lotion

Recently I was asked if I suffered from dry skin and if I would be interested in trying Vaseline's new product, Intensive Rescue Lotion. I have actually had horrible dry skin for many years and have tried almost every lotion to combat it. I used to work outside and would literally have to reapply lotion several times a day. I now live where it is horribly dry which has made my dry skin even worse.

Thanks to Vaseline Intensive Rescue, I no longer consider myself a dry skin sufferer. I put it on after my shower in the morning and I don't have to think about my skin the rest of the day. It is not greasy or too thick and is fragrance-free. I can truly say that I love this lotion and have recommended it to all my friends and family.

I was asked to do a testimonial and it can be viewed at www.dryskinrescue.com (scroll down midway and click on my picture/Vaseline Skin Stories or click HERE). You can also view 2 other fabulous bloggers that also filmed testimonials and that are part of the "Dry Skin Patrol" along with me. We will be traveling to cold weather locations and participating in events like Coney Island's Polar Bear Plunge and Minnesota's BearGrease Sleddog Marathon. I am both excited and nervous - it is all so surreal. Things like this don't happen to me!

I will be blogging, tweeting and posting on Facebook throughout the tour and I hope you will follow along with me. If you are near any of our stops, I hope you will come on out and say hi! You can get your own free sample of Vaseline Intensive Rescue - Click HERE!

I am being compensated for mine and my families time for filming and traveling. I am not being compensated for this post. The views and opinions are mine alone and are not influenced by any compensation.

Filtrete Water Pitcher from 3M Review

Our household no longer buys bottled water. As convenient as they are, bottled water produces 1.5 million tons of plastic waste per year. According to Food and Water Watch, that plastic requires up to 47 million gallons of oil per year to produce. What about recycling them you say? Well, over 80 percent of plastic bottles are simply thrown away and sent to your local landfill.

So I have been on the hunt for a convenient, good tasting and economical alternative and up until recently I had found they were all pretty much the same. However, the Filtrete Water Pitcher by 3M is unique, new and different. It has a 12 cup capacity and is a really nice looking pitcher that really doesn't look even like a water filter pitcher. It is also affordable at around $30 for the pitcher and $11 for each filter. The filters last up to 100 gallons or approximately 3 months which is over 2 times the length of other filters.

My favorite feature by far is this filter. While other brand's filters are small cartridge tubes, this filter is wide so the surface area that the water filters through is greater. This means that water filters through faster. I turned my water on full blast and ran it into the Filtrete pitcher and the filter kept up with the flow. Other brands, I have found, are so slow and I have to run water in for a few seconds and then wait for the water to filter through. I have to do this several times and I simply don't have the time, or patience, to sit and wait. With the Filtrete Water Pitcher, I fill it up and water is ready to drink almost immediately.

You can register to receive seasonal e-newsletters featuring money-saving offers, filter change reminders, better home living tips and more by signing up (http://www.filtrete.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/FiltreteUS/Filtrete/Resources/Clear-advantages/) on the Filtrete Water Filtration Products website. You can also follow Filtrete Water Filtration Products on Twitter (http://twitter.com/FiltreteWater) or like the brand on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/FiltreteWater) for healthier living tips. It is now even easier for my family to ditch the bottled water habit. Now if I can only convince my mother-in-law to give it a try!

“I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Filtrete and received the water pitcher to facilitate my candid review.”