Lysol Touch of Foam Review

As someone who reviews products on a regular basis, I truly believe the best reviews unfold naturally. This morning I received my latest package from BzzAgent, a company I've affiliated with to offer me the first crack at testing new products. It's pretty fun to be on the edge like that. 

So my daughter invited some of her friends over to color Easter eggs this afternoon. I was delighted to watch a group of high school and college kids enjoying such a simple pleasure. They were a joy as they marbeled, tie-dyed, colored and dipped their eggs, creating a festival of joy for our eyes. 

Such artistry makes for dirty hands. It was rather fortuitous that I received my latest product from BzzAgent today. I even joked with the kids they could be a topic of my blog, if they used the Lysol Touch of Foam Creamy Vanilla Anti Bacterial handsoap. They enthusiastically agreed. The pictures speak for themselves. 

The grime of coloring eggs! 

Lysol to the rescue!

Clean hands again! 

In short, I am posting this review on this blog because honestly, my green living blog has spent many times decrying the use of both liquid soap and anti bacterial products. But because Lysol does not contain tryclosan (my primary reason for objecting to anti bacterial products) and because we also embrace a lifestyle that gets it right 80% of the time, we are happy to review and use Lysol Touch of Foam.

A few notes: 

• It does make your hands soft, as noted by not just myself but the testers
• Vanilla is not my favorite scent for body products (I always feel like I still have food on me, because I keep smelling it). I prefer to clean myself with non-food scented products. 
• Personal preferences aside, as shown by the photos, Lysol works and my hands are soft. Don't love the scent, but that's me.  

disclaimer: We got a free bottle of soap to try. Nonetheless, the desire to scrub the dyes of coloring Easter eggs off our hands are entirely our choice. Lysol served us well. My opinions are my own and I received no compensation to publish this review. 

Happy Easter! 

National Public Health Week April 1-7, 2013

Brought to you by MPH@GW: Master of Public Health Online

Indiegogo Start Up Fund project: The Victims (guest post from Adam Kern)

Fresh Daily Bread is happy to share our space with Adam Kern.

The Victims - a dark comedy about the Israeli - Palestinian conflict

An overly empathetic writer returns to his homeland to resolve an international dispute through words, but his characters have a different story in mind.

Executive Producer Adam Kern, and screenwriter Ken Kaissar are running a crowdsourcing campaign to raise funds to start their production company. Once initial funding is raised, the pair can create an LLC, hire an entertainment lawyer and start approaching large scale investors to raise the financing required to make the film.

The Victims is a story that shifts back and forth between two parallel worlds, one literal and the other poetic.
For the first time since leaving as a child, David returns to Israel as an adult to gather research and an understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while Paula stumbles upon the garden of Jidi and Bassee, two creatures who lived in an idyllic world where they grew their own food and lived in tranquility.

Now in Jidi and Bassee’s garden, life is riddled by conflict and violence, until Paula, a peacemaker, comes to help them resolve the hostilities.

The Victims is a complex look at a complex issue in which what you see is not always what you get.
The film asks its audience to abandon any questions of bias and balance regarding the Palestinian / Israeli conflict. You will quickly find out that it doesn’t matter which side Jidi and Bassee represent, as both sides are hindered by the ever-present attitude of: “What do you want me to do about it?”

Runner-up for the 2009 Princess Grace Award and honored by the Lark Play Development Center as part of the Middle East America Play Commission, Ken Kaissar's The Victims is a timely piece that may not resolve the conflict, but can open eyes to how truly complex it is.

If you'd like to support the project you can visit: 

The Victims

Things Kids Wear and Wear and Wear

There are so many funny pre-school parenting blogs out there. I read them and find myself transported back in time. I didn't blog then, but let's just say I did so that I can capture some of the stories of children who eventually grow up and parents who simultaneously push them forward, then pull them back.

I have two girls. When they were little, their days were filled with imaginative play and rainbows and unicorns and maybe even a few kittens. Okay, nix the kittens, I'm not a cat person. But rainbows and unicorns, and glitter and beads. Oh the glitter! Oh the beads! In fact, I just had the unique opportunity to trade email with the person who lives in our old house, and 10 years later, the glitter still lingers. Direct quote:

... it is really awesome to meet the person who built our house. Just so you know, there IS evidence of you (well, your sweet daughters) as I have found little sparkly plastic beads in various cracks and crevices around the house. Since I didn't have a daughter until 5 months go, I knew they had to be yours.

But little girls are not all sugar and spice. Sometimes they are grub and grime. On the off chance (ha) that either of them read this post today, I will protect their specific identities so they can say that was her sister. Plausible deniability.


One of my children did not care for anything itchy. That same child had a penchant for running around shirtless and explaining that she was half boy so she didn't need to wear a shirt. Except when she took dance lessons and she wore a leotard and tights, in a very unique way. She wore the tights like pants, putting them on over her leotard to avoid the itchiness of the seams on the tights. And socks with hula girls over the tights. Because everyone knows the way to prove you're dancing is by your socks. But she refused to put her hula girl socks in the laundry, she would hide the socks in her bedroom until the following week. After a month of dance lessons, I think the girls could dance on their own. Or at least stand up.

The other child had "day of the week" underpants, with the day encircling the waistband. I had something similar as a child but never remembered what day it was, so I was not surprised when I saw Wednesday underpants on her one Friday morning. However, two days later, on Sunday, when she leaned forward in church and Wednesday blinked back at me, I shuddered. After church I asked her WHY she hadn't changed her underpants since Friday and she explained she just wanted to see how long she could go, and that actually she had been wearing them since Wednesday. She was hoping to set some sort of record. The thing that really made me exasperated was she was actually throwing a clean pair of underpants in the laundry every day so that I wouldn't catch onto her stealth attempt to set a world records for consecutive days wearing the same underpants. (there isn't one, although there is a record for wearing 302 pairs of underpants at the same time.)

Today, those same teenagers generate laundry at an alarming rate. I think that even if they look at clothing it goes in the hamper. I stopped doing their laundry unless they hit a particularly busy patch of time. Then I wonder what sort of records their clothes are setting these days. But even more so, I admit, I miss those days a little. Until I find the running clothes that were in the gym bag in the closet since last fall.

Top 10 Happiest Cities (infographic)

Have you visited any of these places yet? Will you now? 

Find A Happy Place: The Top 10 Happiest Cities infographic by spacechimpmedia.

Hobbit Blu-Ray Giveaway!

We’re proud to announce The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey coming to Blu-ray & DVD March 19th 2013! 

When I was in 7th grade, we read this classic Tolkien story and the world of hobbits, dwarves and wizards came to life in my young mind. I was enchanted. Now that same world comes to life on the screen and Fresh Daily Bread is offering one lucky reader a chance to win it.  

J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic adventure follows the journey of Bilbo Baggins, who is swept into an amazing quest to reclaim the lost Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the fearsome dragon Smaug. Approached out of the blue by the wizard Gandalf the Grey, Bilbo finds himself joining a company of thirteen dwarves led by the legendary warrior, Thorin Oakenshield. Their journey will take them into the Wild; through treacherous lands swarming with Goblins and Orcs, deadly Wargs and Sorcerers.

To enter to win your own copy, simply take the Quiz below and tell us in the comments what percentage Hobbit you are. (I am 48%). We will draw a winner from the comments on April 1, 2013 at midnight EST. 

disclosure: promotional materials have been provided to Fresh Daily Bread from Warner Bros., but being enchanted by the  The Hobbit is completely the result of a terrific 7th grade English teacher.

OZ Activity Sheets

We're thrilled to bring you some activity sheets to complement the Disney movie, OZ which premiered last week.

To print each game, click on the photo which will take you to a link for a printable PDF file.

It's thrilling to see what imagination has been sparked for not just the long time fans, but a whole new generation. As a parent, having an activity to reinforce the joy of the film enhances the magic.

We're happy to share these activity pages with you, from our friends at Disney.

Enjoy!

from the media kit: 

“This is a story of how the wizard came to be the wizard; of how a small time carnival magician—a faker, a charlatan—came to a fantastic world and was just the thing that they needed to save the day. It’s the tale of how an average man who was selfish became a great wizard who is selfless.”

—Sam Raimi, director

L. Frank Baum, who wrote 14 novels between 1900-1920, all set in the Land of Oz he so vividly created, never fully portrayed the wizard character’s background in any of his books. Producer Joe Roth found that fact fascinating. “I love origin stories and I liked the idea of how the wizard came to be,” says Roth. “So, going back to Baum’s books to research and imagine his beginnings seemed like a great idea.”

“L. Frank Baum wrote a series of adventures with multiple characters in Oz,” states Raimi’s longtime producing partner, Grant Curtis. “I think the beauty of what Mitchell Kapner originally did, along with producer Joe Roth and executive producer Palak Patel, was that they took some of the adventures throughout these books and brought them together into one concise story that depicts how Oz became the great wizard.”

“It begins with a circus con artist who gets caught up in a tornado in a hot-air balloon and lands in this magical Land of Oz,” screenwriter Mitchell Kapner elaborates about the original story inspired by the works of author L. Frank Baum. “Because his name is Oz, his arrival coincides with a prophecy that states that a new and great leader is forthcoming. Because the Wicked Witch has taken over the land, the people look to this stranger as this great Wizard. They bow down to this mere mortal when they see his name on the side of his balloon.

“This is a guy, bluffing his way through life because he doesn't have real magic powers like these witches do, who can become their leader and get Emerald City back from the Wicked Witch,” the screenwriter resumes about the story. “I liked the dynamic that people expected him to be this powerful wizard, which he knows he’s not. Yet, he can claim this throne, and essentially be the King, if he convinces enough people. Along the way, he realizes it’s not just about him. He has to do it to save these people.”


“What I love most about this character of Oz is that he is such a dastardly heel,” says co-screenwriter David Lindsay-Abaire about the film’s unlikely hero. “But, he also craves something greater, both from his life and for himself as a person. He wants to do great things, and, in the beginning, it’s only about money and power and riches. By the end of the story, he finds out it’s actually about finding love and friendship. It’s a very human story.”

The Bible on History Channel PREMIERE!

Fresh Daily Bread is proud to announce the great History channel  epic 10-part miniseries retelling stories from the Scriptures for a whole new generation. Breathtaking in scope and scale, The Bible features powerful performances, exotic locales and dazzling visual effects that breathe spectacular life into the dramatic tales of faith and courage from Genesis through Revelation. This historic television event is sure to entertain and inspire the whole family! 

Tonight, 03/03/13, is the premiere. Check local listings for the channel. One lucky commenter will also receive a Bible companion book giveaway, A Story of God and All of Us. Please leave a comment with your favorite Bible story and why to qualify. Winner will be chosen on 3/13/13, at midnight EST, so there is still time to enter!