Mommy Urban Legend or Safety Fact?

Today I am going to talk about something serious in Mommy Corner.  But before we begin you know how much I think confession is good for the soul, so first a confession.  Sometimes after my son finishes his breakfast I mix peanut butter and Nutella on a spoon together and let him eat it.  I know, I know, I will probably not be best friends with the woman who sued Nutella for false advertising.  But the way I see it no matter what he has for breakfast an extra shot of protein and a little sweetness in the morning will get him through till lunch.  So there you have it, confessions of this slacker mom.  Whew, I feel better now that I got that off my chest.  Now on to the car seat question.

On a more serious note, I was recently in a car accident.  I’m okay, but can I just take a moment to say how much I hate metered on ramps.  It makes no sense to me, to come to a stop before merging.  Isn’t the whole point of an on ramp to get up to speed so that you can merge fluently with the 60 mph traffic?  Look how sad the "Mom Mobile" license plate looks barely hanging on. Luckily for me I bought two of them in the event that anything ever happen to the first one.

The baby was in the second row of the van safely secured rear facing in his car seat.  Aside from being pretty shook up, I had minimal damage. There was no air bag deployment and I was able to drive the vehicle after the accident.  But all of this got me thinking, should I replace my child’s car seat?

Some years ago I sold one of my firstborn’s car seats on Craigslist and the woman who purchased it asked me if it had ever been in an accident.  I have since heard other moms mention this in conversation.  I immediately got to questioning is this mommy-lore, or is this something I should absolutely do? 

I began my search for answers with Cosco, the company that manufactured the seat.  I was able to find a wealth of information on product selection, proper installation and new advances but I did not see my definitive answer.

Next I Googled the question, “Should I replace a child car seat after an accident?” That’s when I came to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  The information that I found was indeed informative.

The NHTSA directed me to safecar.com , to the information below. There was no airbag deployment and I was able to drive away from my accident, after considering all of the factors involved in my accident I decided not to replace my car seat. 

However, unlike the car seats I owned before when I am done with this one I will be sure to remove the cover and label it as unusable before I dispose of it.  It is one thing for me to make an informed decision but quite another to donate this car seat when I'm done with it.

So there you have it, my Mommy’s Corner post for today.  I am currently working on a little boy’s room and hope to have some projects to share with you soon.    

 

 

Spring Has Sprung, Bring On The Tools

Wow I can't tell you how excited I am that it's springtime finally. Well it may not be spring officially on the calendar but the weather has changed and I was able to get outside and get some fresh air and work in the yard. Hallelujah. I don't think that it has escaped anyone's attention that I am a bit of a tool fanatic. So today I'm going to share with you one of my new favorite tools. It is an Agrifab Manual Lawn Sweeper, and as the name suggest it is fabulous.

 I begged the hubs for a lawn sweeper because there are two solid rows of pine trees down the side of the back yard, as well as on both sides of my corner lot, and one in the front yard. And if that alone weren't enough to warrant a happy dance at the purchase of the lawn sweeper, in addition to the pine trees, there are two large live oak trees in the front yard.

For the last several years I have done everything I can to make picking up pine needles and oak leaves as easy and efficient as possible, electric blower, gas blower, cordless blower, but this tool makes all those years seem futile. Two of the three blowers are pictured here.

We first considered a lawn sweeper to pull behind the riding lawnmower, the one I mentioned here. However, with the size of the riding lawnmower and the size of a lawn sweeper it just seemed as though it was not something that we could maneuver in the yard and around the obstacles.

After much searching on the internet, reading reviews and comparing prices I finally decided on the Agrifab.  Through the magic of Amazon Prime and a fantastic deal I soon had my very own Agrifab lawn sweeper. I couldn’t wait to put it together the moment it arrived.  After the kids went to bed I assembled it in my living room, where it sat until the weekend. Then first thing Saturday morning I took it out to the back yard and told my husband I was only going to try it out and that I would be right back in.


Fast forward 40 minutes and the entire back yard was done and a giant pile of pine needles neatly piled and waiting to be bagged.  I know my neighbors must have thought I was crazy, picking up pine needles in my PJ’s, with my hair all crazy, pacing back and forth with my new toy. I even sent a Facebook post to my Mother to show her how clean it was. 

This past weekend I used it to clean oak leaves in the front yard. You can see what a great job it does for the amount of leaves these trees can drop.   

After each pass with the sweeper on the oak leaves in the front yard, there is a noticeable difference. If you like to remove every single leaf then this is not for you, but if you don’t mind mulching a leaf or two in the grass then you will for sure appreciate the job that this tool does. 

Now after I have all the leaves corralled, how do I make light work of the bagging you ask? Two other favorites I have to mention.  First my leaf scoops, these things make a regular appearance for yard clean up, because they pick up so much and I don’t need to wear gloves. It is like having an extra pair of hands.

Mine are bright green, they are laying here next to the rake that I use to keep my pile nice and together. 

And last, but certainly not least, a tool I borrowed from my neighbor for months before buying two of my own, the Bag Butler. Before I married the hubs I did yard work alone, and this handy tool made it possible to bag easily without someone to hold open the bags. 

So there you have it, my tool tip for the day.  The Agrifab is something I use year round, pine needles in the fall and leaves in the spring.  It is a good investment in my book.  Come back soon to see all the projects I managed to squeeze into this sunny weekend we had.  I can’t wait to share.

Shop Till I Drop

Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it is March already.  Where did the time go?  I have been crazy busy at work with a project that had a March 1^st deadline, which has passed.  Yay! So I thought I might share a few things I have been up to.  Of course I have been cooking but I think I will save all that for later. 

I have been on a little bargain shopping spree and came across some great deals.  Some to stay here in the house and others...well sadly, I can’t keep them all. 

First up is this Coco Mat Hanging Basket that is going to go be funky and fresh in my oh-so-cool niece’s room.

We scored her a lovely day bed on Craigslist and she put her new bed into her room and covered it with twinkle lights.  She needed some light over a corner makeup table and we drew our inspiration from some lights we have seen on Pinterest.

The next is this fabulous coastal theme lamp that is going to go in my parent’s place on the coast.  They have what used to be described as a fishing camp on Gran Isle, but now can only be described as a vacation getaway.  

I saw this and had to have it.  Can I just say I am glad to be living in a time when I can snap a picture on my phone and immediately get a yea or nay from family members on my fabulous finds.  No real work needed on this one.  I dusted it off, put a bulb in it and was glad to see this one go to its new home.

I found a floor lamp at the local ReStore, and swooped up two for what I thought was a deal at $12.88. I’ll give you guys the particulars on those soon.   

But this week my visit to the ReStore turned up a herd of lamps corralled in a single area and ready for the taking.  Well I called up the family and bought three more, only this time for the bargain sale price of $5.88 each.

This is by far my favorite and I can’t wait to see how it turns out.  I went to a resale shop near my office just to peek at what they had and bought this beautiful antique wrought iron bed frame.

It was tucked away against a wall in this small store just waiting to be discovered.   The bed has tapered pin side rails so there is no hardware required to put it together.  I couldn't resist putting it together the second I got it home. Pictured here in my car port.

A little bit of TLC and I think this full sized bed will go perfectly in a guest room, or I imagine it in a little girl's room covered in pink bedding.

So there you have it my shopping sprees as of late.  You’ll have to come back and see how each of these turns out.  Thank goodness spring is fast approaching because I have plenty of projects to keep me outdoors working.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.