Breakfast As A Family #JennieO4kids, #MobilizingMillions

Well, my boys and I have been in Virginia for almost 3 weeks now. With the holidays over, we’re trying to get into a routine for ourselves and my extended family. One of our biggest hurdles we’re working on are meals.

My parents are gone before we wake up during the work week so they don’t eat breakfast at home.
My boys, they are now on different school schedules where they used to wake up at the same time, ride the same bus together, at the same time and come home together on the same bus at the same time. Now, Buddy gets up at 6:30a to catch the bus about half an hour later. Doodle gets up an hour later and doesn't start school until 9a!



That means they aren’t eating breakfast together anymore. Thankfully, that’s the only meal change the boys have had. We still eat dinner around the same time we used to back in Minnesota. This is very strange to my parents who typically don’t get home until 7:30-8 at the earliest. Just in time for Doodle to be going to bed. We, of course, have had dinner by that time.

I was so happy that we were all going to be around Saturday morning for breakfast. It was going to be our first non-holiday meal together. I wanted to keep it simple because I’ve made a couple of big meals and they aren’t quite used to homemade food. lol



I love bacon and sausage. If you look at my Pinterest page, you’ll see that Bacon is one of my Boards. Unfortunately, no bacon this morning. Instead, I made scrambled eggs two different ways: one WITH Jennie-O sausage and one without. I wasn’t sure how everyone was going to like eating it. I also decided, with the aid of a little helper, to have a few sausage patties.



My parents haven’t been part of my blogging world like my friends and kids have so this is an entirely new experience for them. lol My dad was awesome. He said, “So I’m going to be on some blog? I protest!” He may have mentioned something along the lines of suing me. I don’t exactly remember because I just tuned him out.

We were all pretty hungry by the time was breakfast was made. I think we’re all used to eating on the run or in short spurts that waiting for a meal to be made in the morning is new to us. What I loved about it though was that we all hung around the kitchen talking. All of us. I can’t tell you how happy I was.



When everything was ready (go figure it was pretty much all at the same time for a change) we all sat around the table and dug in. Now, dad had a golf game to go to so he took a bowl of cereal, big fat cheater! Buddy convinced me that on occasional Saturdays I allow him to have a donut, so he asked for that today. The only thing he requested to eat from my cooked breakfast…the sausage patties, of course. He nearly ate all of them!

Dad…oh, he decided to be Mr. Helpful as you can tell…



So in protest to his protest, this is what he gets…



Take that old man! Your blogging daughter gets the last laugh!

Our usual breakfast is either cereal or (gulp) a pop tart. Ok, –> I <—don’t eat the pop tart, the boys will on occasion, but we all know that it’s not a nutritional breakfast that will help them through the school day until lunch. I know, it makes me cringe too thinking about it. I want my boys to succeed and knowing that they could eat healthier with just a few more minutes of my time in the morning, it makes me want to make a change…for their sakes!

Weekends are just a start. We need to make sure that during the school/work week that they’re getting a breakfast that will see them through to lunch. Especially if their hard classes are in the morning. We just need to figure out a system that’s going to work for us. Being on the East Coast, we’re an hour ahead and now with Buddy’s schedule we’re getting up half an hour earlier than THAT!

But you know what? It’s totally worth it. My boys eating a healthy meal is a good thing! With my new job, I need to eat healthy as well since I’m working from home!



Just a heads up, btw, if you plan on incorporating some Jennie-O Turkey Sausage into your meals, be sure to look for it in the frozen food section. I know each store is different, but I found them in a couple stores next to the other Jennie-O frozen products, so I’d start my search there! =)

And while I’m talking about how I’d like to serve my kids better, especially with their morning breakfast, I wanted to share about Champion For Kids. Here’s their Mission Statement:



This month, their Simple Service project is Give Breakfast A Wake-Up Call! As a single mom, who has kids that receive free meals at school, I know that this is a huge need for many families. I’m extremely grateful that there’s a program available to families, such as myself, to help keep my kids eating nutritional meals.

I don’t ask for handouts or rely on the government for much. As a single mom who’s trying to get back on her feet, I need some help during the interim. I don’t like it, but my kids need me to put my pride aside and make sure they’re taken care of. Yes, they can eat nutritious meals at home and I try to provide that as much as possible, but sometimes the schools will offer my boys better options. It’s just the way it is.



I’m extremely thankful that Champions for Kids is doing what it can to raise up people to serve those children in the community around them! If you’ve been looking for a way for you, and your whole family to get involved, I would ask that you check out some of their ideas and then share what you did with them. They’d love to hear about it!

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®  and Jennie-O #cbias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.

Having the 2nd Talk Thanks to #PoiseFab5 and #Cbias

I’ve heard it said a lady doesn’t share her age.

I’m 43.

With that in mind, when I found out September was Menopause Awareness Month, I realized, I had very little knowledge about Menopause. Here’s what I “do” know:

• You get hotflashes (I’ve had them off and on since a young girl)
• You can get really bad migraines (a past co-worker had them really bad)
• Some people get HRT
• I think some women get a hysterectomy around the time they’re menopausing

Other than that, I have no idea what to expect. My co-worker and friend, Cindy and I were actually talking about menopause because she’s going through it herself right now. One thing she told me I had no clue about was, once you don’t have your cycle for a year straight they consider you finished with menopause.

I know the past month has been tough for Cindy because she sent her only child off to college to another state. She also thought she was home free with her cycles when BAM! right on the cusp of 6 months it showed up again. I knew she needed some pampering.

Since I’ve had the same doctor for the past 13 yrs I thought it would be a good idea to get in touch with her to see what I could read up on before Cindy and I had the “2nd” talk. In case you’re wondering, the first talk would be before you start having your cycles as a young girl. Lo and behold, the clinic had nothing on menopause. No pamphlets, no brochures, no paper medical advice. The one nurse I talked to said they just don’t have anything and most people just look it up online. I was actually shocked!


That led me to the Walmart website where Poise has a brand page with a video and an introduction to 5 women (Poise Fab 5) who have different symptoms of menopause. It was so nice to watch each woman talk about what her experience has been going through menopause and their attitudes are so great! After watching the videos I downloaded their $1 off coupon that I wanted to put in her goodie bag!

I headed to Walmart to grab one of each of their 5 products but was shocked to find most of them gone. The store by my work only had 2 in stock the first time I went. I ran down the road to see if the other Walmart had them all and they had 4 of them, so I grabbed two more. The day before we were going to our spa appointments I had to run to the grocery store to grab some more items and there was the 5th one I wanted to get my hands on!




I really wanted to be ready to ask questions of Cindy about menopause, but since I didn't even know what to ask, I started searching online. I found menopause.org and the Mayo Clinic also had some good information. I downloaded a couple sheets with ideas and got ready for our spa day!

Cindy and I met up and I drove us to an Aveda salon I've been to before. They had actually remodeled the store since the last time I was there a couple years ago. It was SO nice. We were taken to the spa waiting room and that's where we started talking about menopause.


The first thing that came out of her mouth was that attitude is everything. Yes, you may have crappy days, you may wake up naked as a jaybird because you were having night sweats, but if you have a positive attitude, you've won more than half the battle!

I asked her how she deals with her hot flashes and night sweats, and she told me she fans herself and has a fan at home that gives her indirect air because she hates having it blowing right on her. I've had hot flashes before and I know to a degree what she's talking about, but apparently, she gets so hot her hair actually feels like it's on fire. She had a co-worker of ours feel her hair, NOT her head, her hair and she was SO surprised at how hot to the touch it was! I can't even imagine!

One thing I asked her about what bladder leakage. I told her that when I bounce on the trampoline outside it feels like I have to go to the bathroom all the time! lol She doesn't deal with that, and her advice was not to jump around! HA! I think from what I've heard, the more kids you have, the weaker your bladder can be. Well, that would certainly fit in my case having given birth to 4 babies!

I also asked her about HRT and it's another thing she hasn't really looked into as she hasn't needed it. If I ever come to that place, I'm hoping there will be something more natural I can use than something prescribed. I'll just have to see what happens with my body.


We were taken by our spa gals, Amanda and Sheri, to the pedicure station and started on our pampering! I haven't been pampered for a few years, so this was absolutely divine. Cindy's daughter headed off to college, she JUST had her "time of the month" start again and I knew this was going to be so great for her!

Sheri was funny, because she's our age and has older girls so we talked about being moms for almost the whole time we had the pedicures being done. Amanda is young enough to be our daughters and so it was probably hard for her to relate to us. I started talking to her about things that would be more up her alley. She was SO incredibly nice! And man, does she give an amazing pedicure!

Next Cindy and I headed to the manicure station. Sheri stayed with Cindy while I was able to meet Jayna. I was going to have Amanda once we headed to our facials. The four of us were just talking about daily life when the topic of menopause was brought up. Oh gosh, Jayna and Sheri were happy to talk about the topic. They both agreed that they are the hottest ladies in their spa! They want the air up and the rest of the people who work with them aren't in agreement! lol


I just want to say how refreshing it was to be able to talk about this with these ladies! It's not a taboo subject and I wasn't sure if it was one of those things you just don't discuss. Thankfully Jayna and Sheri weren't wallflowers about their thoughts on the subject. Sheri did mention that she likes to have her fan blowing directly on her, at full tilt!

When we were done with our manicures, Amanda came back with me and Cindy was introduced to Molly. Neither of us had had facials before so it was exciting to head into our private rooms to finish off our afternoon at the spa. All I can say is "wow". It was so amazingly relaxing. It was the only time that there wasn't a lot of chatter going on, but mellow music in the background and just being pampered.


We were both pretty much mush after our spa day, but, we were both ravenous. I had wanted to do a package at the spa that included a lunch, but it's such a popular place, I would've had to wait a month or so for us to be able to do it together. For lunch I wanted to go to a restaurant I had never been to, but also had to be relatively quick since we both needed to get home. Across the street was a Noodles & Co and the both of us like pasta!

We ordered our lunches and I gave Cindy her goodie bag. I had her pick out a product from the salon, but I also snuck in the nail polish she had put on her toes. Inside the bag was all 5 Poise Feminine Wellness products:

• Poise Roll-On Cooling Gel
• Poise Body Cooling Towelettes
• Poise Feminine Wash
• Poise Panty Freshener
• Poise Personal Lubricant

I also included a $1 off coupon that I downloaded and a travel mug for the iced tea she enjoys drinking.


Cindy opened each product, aside from the Feminine Wash so we could check out the scents and how they felt. I think by far our favorite was the Cooling Towelettes. They really cooled both of us off immediately and as we kept wiping it, it stayed cool. We kept talking about how nice it would be to have someone rub the towelette on us when we're having hot flashes! I liked the light fragrance.

I also talked to her about the video series on the Walmart website with the Fab 5 ladies. I explained how each lady shared about what symptoms she experiences most and what products they use to help with it. I loved their candor and how they acted like it wasn't a big deal, it's part of life and every woman will go through it. Their positive attitudes were lined up with Cindy!


I was SO thankful to be able to spend the day with Cindy. She exudes positivity and is such an encouragement to me! I also appreciate that she was willing to talk to me so openly and candidly about the topic of menopause and what she's been going through.

Check out Poise on Facebook, Twitter and the Pinterest page. You can also find more photos from my shopping and spa trip in my Google + story!

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™ and Poise #CBias #SocialFabric all opinions are my own and
never influenced by the company!