Going "no poo"

 I've been thinking about it for a while now: I am going to stop washing my hair with shampoo.

I have read a lot about the "no poo" method for hair, where you stop using traditional shampoo and conditioner and instead "wash" with baking soda and "condition" with apple cider vinegar (not white vinegar, as pictured above). As I read about it over the years, I saw a lot of people complain that it doesn't work unless you have fairly curly hair. Since my hair is pretty much stick straight, I had assumed it would not work for me.

Then my friend Rebecca (who is, like, my medicine woman!) tried it. She has hair that is straight, just like mine. Her hair looks great! You can't tell at all. She said that sometimes it takes up to 3 months for the hair to regulate, but that's OK with me. Her point is that we can always just start washing with shampoo again any time we feel like it.

So, I am on Day 2 of Not Shampooing My Hair! Day 1 (yesterday) I think I used too much baking soda and it got super crunchy in the back. Christian said it looked completely normal but the crunchiness drove me a little crazy. Today I used less baking soda and a ton of vinegar, and that seem to balance it out. It's much softer than Day 1, although still kinda crunchy-ish. I don't have any greasiness yet. My hair looks and smells normal.

I'll keep you updated on the progress!

Related: See all "no poo" updates, including the one where I quit "no poo"!

Looking back on 2011 To Do List

Thanks to Jennie at She Likes Purple, you might remember that I made a 2011 To Do List in lieu of resolutions. Frankly, I forgotten about most of it until I saw her post on how hers faired.
Let's see how I did on my list this year:

2011 To Do List

• Complete redesign of this blog (already in the works), including logo and business cards. I am basing the design on the work of an awesome sculptor who has graciously given me his permission to use his work as inspiration for a graphic designer to build on. I can't wait for you all to see it! Not sure yet if I'll have to convert to Wordpress  DONE! Did not convert to WordPress. I love what my husband did!
• Get all the cross-stitch pieces people have given me re-framed into corresponding/compatible frames that also mesh with our modern-ish decor, giving them the ability to be displayed in main rooms of the house rather than stored away somewhere. Um, nope. Still have not done this. 2012?
• Rebuild my wardrobe once I return to my pre-pregnancy size. I've been pregnant or post-pregnant for over 2 years straight now, so I own hardly any non-maternity clothing - and what I have is 2 years behind. Time to start from scratch! No again. We kind of ran out of money, what with going to one income and buying a house.
• Keep growing out my hair. Nobody let me cut it all off again, I don't care what I say!!! What was I thinking?? It's pretty long by now! Not wanting to cut it off - Little Lady loves to play with it!
• Continue blog posting and Twittering regularly, despite whatever life changes we are going through. Long silences are bad for traffic! Plus, having this non-mommy blog forces me to think about non-mommy things when the mommy-ing gets overwhelming. I think I have done pretty well, especially NaBloPoMo!
• Keep myself open to alternative part-time career opportunities that do NOT involve sales. Maybe social media? Maybe an off-shoot of something blogging related? I am open to ideas and suggestions! Well, I did get a part-time social media job this year. Not sure how good of a fit it is for me right now, but it works. Will have a to-do related to blogging in 2012.
• Consider entering into sponsorship partnerships with companies I love, to further the blogging thing. I don't know much about this stuff. I am not promising anything. Um, no. I am still to chicken to do this. My numbers are so low that I am embarrassed to share them with advertisers for fear of being laughed at.
• Figure out how to babyproof our cabinets which have no handles. Did that and then moved.
• Turn all my blog posts on the family blog from 2009 and 2010 into physical books using Blog2Print.com - this is the only way our family will ever own a "scrapbook" and it's so much easier because I've already done the work! Did it! Love my books! Will be doing a 2011 book too!

So, that's where last year stands. Stay tuned for next year's "To Do" list!
What's yours?

Merry Christmas!

Our family is excited about celebrating Christmas here at home, hosting our various family members and celebrating the amazing Christmas miracles we've been blessed with. Since our original Secret Santas and Christmas miracle, a second Secret Santa has also visited us with more gifts for the kids. We are humbled and blessed. There are lots of gifts under the tree for our kids, despite the fact that we didn't spend anything. We are thankful for the blessings that have been provided for us. It does make me wonder about why I don't hear these Santas coming and going outside my house, though!

One thing I love about not traveling on Christmas Eve is that we get to attend services at Watermark (our church). Little Lady is currently running a fever from either teething or a cold, so we couldn't put her in childcare. Rather than be discouraged, as I have in the past, we decided to just bring her in and sit way up high in the upper level. She enjoyed hanging onto the rail (very secure, don't worry!) for a while and then took a nice little nap while Todd spoke.


You might remember that our first Secret Santas gave us some cash to go see Santa Claus in the beautiful outfits they gave the children. We went to see Santa at A Real Bookstore in Allen a few weeks ago, and here's the picture:


Thank you to our Secret Santas, who are "the hands and feet" of the God that we are celebrating!
I feel like this has been the least hectic and the most meaningful Christmas that I can remember. I hope that we can continue to take this spirit of humility and peace into future Christmas seasons and teach it to our children.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Thank you for following along with our journey!

Our Christmas miracles

I have been trying all day to think of how to write this post that would express how thankful we are for the wonderful blessings that have been provided to us in the last 24 hours. I know that not all of my readers believe in God, but I have to say that for me, I see God in all of this. It's probably trendy to attribute blessings to God, especially at this time of year, but I have seen blessings like this all my life - enough to believe that it's not just random and that God is not just a great big Santa Claus in the sky. I don't know if He gives us trials so that we can trust Him, or so to show us that we are powerless and He is powerful. I feel like it's probably both.

If you read this blog much, you know we have been facing some tricky times with our unbreakable lease and dual rent/mortgage after buying our new home in November - so much that we cancelled gifts this Christmas. We were amazingly blessed by a Secret Santa who brought us wonderful gifts we can give to the children, for them to see Santa (which they did - pic to come soon, I need to scan it!), and a gift card toward our Christmas meal (got it today!).

In the last week, a potential renter has come along. We are very thankful that it is someone Christian knows, so the house would be helpful in reducing this person's commute and hopefully beneficial to both parties. The only catch is that, in order to make it affordable for this person, we would have to pay their rent for January plus an incentive equal to one more month. This person would move at the end of December (we've already paid December even though the house is empty), meaning that we'd get out of the lease after paying 2.5 months rent while someone else is living there. There is also an additional fee for breaking the lease. The total amount was very daunting for us, but just barely workable. We knew it was our only shot, because the other potential tenants have just not been working out in the last month. So we took a deep breath and prepared to let go of pretty much everything. We actually felt OK with this. My husband, for all his theological interest in unbelief, actually has an amazing faith. He encouraged me that we would be OK and I agreed.

As soon as we had decided to move forward with this arrangement, we received a very generous gift from some friends at our church. Which might seem weird, except that it's sort of something we believe in. There's a passage in Acts 2 of the Bible that explains how the early believers in Jesus came together and shared everything they had - people who had more gave to people who had less, and that way everyone had enough. You know, kind of like socialism! (that was a joke) When we were dual-income-no-kids, there were times that we gave similar gifts to our friends. It felt weird to be on the receiving end at first, but I remember being on the giving end and I know that we'll be there again one day. I can't wait!

Shortly after that miracle, another miracle came along in the form of a bonus for Christian's work that was much larger than we anticipated. We really do not count on bonuses or even expect them, so this was amazing. Especially in this economy. We are blessed that he works for a company who is doing very well at this time.

We are in awe of God's amazing goodness. I would like to thank each one of you for your prayers, and even all your help in spreading the word to rent our house. So many little encouragements along the way.

We definitely do not deserve all that has been given to us. But isn't that really the message of this season? We do not deserve the baby in the manager who was born just to die in our place. And yet... there He is.

Thank You.

Pinterest project: bathroom baskets

I cannot believe I did it, but I did: I completed a Pinterest project!
We don't have a ton of storage in our master bathroom in this new house, so this basket project was perfect (this is the original pic of whoever posted it):

Source: myhomeideas.com via Jenny on Pinterest

I already had some curtain clips from a previous house, and even one of the baskets. All I had to buy were 2 new baskets and the curtain rods.
Here's the final product:


The picture looks like one of the bars is bowed, for some reason, but it isn't (I blame my iPhone camera).
I think it looks really neat and it gives us a lot more storage!

7 Quick Takes Friday #30

--- 1 ---

We slacked off on the unpacking for a while, but I'm getting re-motivated since pretty much all our family will be visiting or staying with us at some point starting in the next week. Fortunately, my BFF Millie is the first to visit and she is bringing me LOTS OF WINE!

--- 2 ---

Which leads me to ask: What is wrong with you, Dallas?! We were supposed to get a Trader Joe's some time this year but apparently the city has been bickering and negotiating and overall no one has decided where to put it. This is why I am having to have a friend from OUT OF STATE bring me Two Buck Chuck. Get on the ball, Trader Joe's! I am just sitting here, waiting to give you money!

--- 3---

I am selling things on eBay and Craigslist. Sometimes when I unpack I realize I need to get rid of even more stuff than when I packed. Also, we could really use the money. Anyone want a fencing jacket, an armoire, or some gender-neutral, eco-friendly nursery decorations?

--- 4 ---

The house has still not rented. We've had several people say they are going to rent it but they never follow through or maybe they are putting it off. I continue to vacillate between being OK that we are going to go completely broke and being terrified about it. I know that the correct response is to trust and have faith. But sometimes seeing everything slip away slowly kinda freaks me out.

--- 5 ---

I am excited about some possible blogging opportunities in the upcoming year. However, they will require a lot more writing time and I am still trying to figure out how to do that without having to pay for babysitting, since I don't make enough off the writing to cover the cost of childcare.

--- 6 ---

Oh no the baby is waking up.

--- 7 ---

Yes, she is up. Have a good week!


~~~

Well that's all for this week, be sure to visit Conversion Diary for links to more 7 Quick Takes Fridays.

Sneaky eating: Lentil and Carrot Spice Muffins

Before I had kids, I always said that I would NOT be hiding veggies and fruit in food - I would make those kids eat fruit and veggies and learn to like it! Because I was so wise in the ways of children.
HAHAHAHAHA!

Little Sir actually loves all fruit and will willingly (although sporadically) eat a good deal of veggies. However, he does not eat: meat of any kind, soy, or beans of any kind. Where does he get his protein, you might ask? If you find that out, please let me know. Maybe dairy? (All the natural mamas out there are having heart attacks - truly hardcore "green" and "natural" people say dairy is the devil.) I don't know how he isn't dead, actually. Possibly the PediaSure we sneak into his milk helps (and the natural mamas have now left my blog... cause yeah, I know that stuff has sugar).

Here is a recipe I got from my mom in which I hide lentil beans. He really does like muffins so this seems to work well and it they are very yummy!


Lentil and Carrot Spice Muffins

1/2 c. brown sugar

3/4 c. granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1/3 c. oil

1 c. lentil puree****

1 c. shredded carrots (I shredded mine in a food processor)

1 c. flour

3/4 c. whole wheat flour

1 tsp baking soda 

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 tsp nutmeg

pinch of salt

 

Mix all moist ingredients.  Mix all drys.  Add together till incorporated. Depending on how watery your lentil puree was (or wasn't), you might need to add a little bit of apple juice to make the batter muffin-consistency. Spray tins or baking pan.  Bake at 350 for 20-25 min.

***Lentil Puree  Rinse and drain a can of lentils (original recipe said 19 oz but I used 15 oz and that was perfect but I had to add additional juice to the batter); puree in processor with 1/4 c. water till like baby food, adding water as needed.  Can use fruit juice if desired.

Our Secret Santas

Last night I was washing up bottles and sippys downstairs while Christian was bathing Little Sir upstairs. Little Lady had a really drippy nose and hasn't felt well for a few days so she was already asleep. I guess it was around 8pm-ish when the doorbell rang! It startled me a little because it was so dark outside. When I went to the door, there was no one there but there was this big red box with a gold bow!

Imagine this is on our doorstep, I didn't take a picture until it was already inside

I looked up and down the street but didn't see any cars. It was pretty cold, though, so I didn't try too hard. I figured if they wanted me to catch them they wouldn't have left. Christian said, "What if it is full of bees?!". I can only assume he watches some kind of weird killer bee movies on TV after I go to bed at night.

I brought it inside and once Little Sir finished his bath, we let him help us open it. Inside the box was a note that said, "The Bradford Family: Have yourself a Merry little Christmas in your new home. PS Open the boxes now :) You may need what is inside when you do pictures with Santa. Love, Secret Santas". There was also a Sprouts gift card (a local supermarket that I really like, right near our house, it carries a lot of nice natural and organic stuff often cheaper than Whole Foods). There was even a little envelope with some extra cash that said, "For a picture with Santa? Or maybe just for baking cookies :) Your call.". I am DEFINITELY going to do one or both of those things.

Here is a list of the things inside the box: a Christmas dress for Little Lady, a Christmas shirt for Little Sir, a doll for Little Lady (I am so excited about this! I wish she had been awake! I should wait until Christmas to give it to her, though!!), a Melissa '&' Doug musical set, a Melissa '&' Doug pizza set, a set of crayons and coloring pad, and the rest of the greeting cards that the note was written on.

Since Little Sir was with us when we opened it, we did let him open up the pizza. However, he will most likely forget the crayons and coloring pad so I am going to wrap those up to put under the tree for Christmas. IF we are lucky and he forgot about the musical instruments, I am going to wrap those up too. He has a scary good memory sometimes, though! It's OK because I have some BlogHer swag left over that I was going to wrap up for him but I didn't have anything for Little Lady.

I feel like we are so blessed by our friends. Maybe I will find out who it was, or maybe not. I am almost sure it is someone we know from church. Which does not narrow things down at all since most of our good friends go to Watermark. Still, I believe this is a God thing. He knows what we need and what we want and He works through others. It is humbling to think that we would be recipients when there are so many other more needy families out there. But I also know that we have done similar things for our friends in the past and how much we loved to be able to do things for them. And we look forward to being able to do it again! It is a great big circle of giving and sharing and that is how it should be in a family.

So, to whoever you guys are: we love you, and thank you for loving us! We are so thankful and excited! I am loving the Sprouts gift card too, because it turns out I will be cooking Christmas dinner on Christmas Day so it will come in handy! Thank you!!
{See the YouTube video of us opening the box here - it's over 6 minutes long, so beware}

Merry Christmas, everyone!

How to subscribe to my blog!

I've had a few friends tell me that since Google Buzz has gone away, they don't get my blog posts in their email anymore. This is true, so I thought I'd give you a few other ways to get the blog without leaving your Google email/Gmail. I am going to list them for you based on how you use the internet.

If you really only read this blog.
Aw, ya'll are sweet! Really, though, this mainly applies to my family. If you liked getting the blog posts in Google Buzz so you can keep up with me, all you have to do now to keep getting only this blog in your email is subscribe to my email feed. Here's a special box:

Enter your email address to subscribe to Conscientious Confusion:

Every time I publish a blog post, it will be emailed to you. Almost exactly the same as Google Buzz except without the "Comment" feature right at the bottom.

If you are keeping up with several blogs and no longer have time to visit every one individually.
I'll tell you my secret: Google Reader. It's an RSS reader, but don't let that terminology worry you. All you have to do is go to reader.google.com when you are already logged in to your Gmail. It is part of your existing Google account, so you won't have to register - you just tell it what blogs you want to follow by using this button:

Just type http://www.conscientiousconfusion.com into that box and you've got my blog!
You can even copy-and-paste that bold text above if you are having trouble spelling "conscientious"!

I hope that Google Reader helps you discover and follow lots of new bloggers - I know it's been a lifesaver for me as I've discovered more blogs that I love over the years. I also love that it works great on the iPhone or other smartphones - you can access reader.google.com from your phone and have the exact same interface that you have on the computer.

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

We aren't doing Christmas

You might think that since we are Christian (I hate that word for some reason, it is way too generic and it encompasses a lot of people that I don't think follow the Christ of the Bible), we would be all about Christmas. And in a spiritual way, of course we are. We celebrate thankfully that God provided a very difficult and painful sacrifice on our behalf so that we don't have to try and earn our way into heaven (SO thankful, cause I've done a ton of things that I know disqualified me, especially in college...). That's kind of a thing we do in our hearts and that we'll talk to our kids about in more detail when they are old enough to understand. But we don't celebrate standard religious institutional traditions, in general.

Our plan was always to give them gifts at this time of year, just like nearly every other household in America. We also planned to give reasonable gifts to our friends and family. We knew we are a one-income house and were going to scale back this year more than in past years when we were dual income.

However, this inescapable lease has changed things.

Because we'll be paying both rent and a mortgage for the unforeseeable future, spending any money at all is no longer an option. We made the decision not to. Not to buy anything for anyone.

In many ways it's a good thing that our children are so young, because they don't expect anything. Little Sir does not remember last year as significant. Little Lady, of course, will only be 10 months old so she has no idea what is going on. Obviously, it's OK with them.

But I have to tell you, I have struggled with this. It's not that I wanted to go overboard and buy them a ton of things. I am the one that has to clean up the things, and since we haven't purchased any kind of toy storage yet, we don't really have room for more things! Right now I just stack toys in piles on the floor when I want to clean, or throw them into the beds. (the plan was to buy storage at Target or Ikea but that costs money too!)

I think it's more that I wanted to give them gifts. Little Lady especially, poor thing, has hardly any of her own toys. All the things she plays with are hand-me-downs from Little Sir. I was really looking forward to thinking of some good toys for her that could be her very own.

I am also grieving the loss of our ability to celebrate our anniversary (December 23) in some kind of special way. It's only our 6th year, but we pretty much skipped our 5 year anniversary last year because I was pregnant with Little Lady and couldn't take any vacation from work or it would impact my maternity leave. Even if we had wanted to go out for dinner one night, we didn't have any childcare for Little Sir. So we didn't celebrate at all. Before all this happened with the house, I was hoping that we could just have a "do-over" of our 5th anniversary this year.

Then two things happened:
1) one of the pastors at our church did a message on Thanks-living this Sunday where he talked about how we should be so thankful for the spiritual gifts we have been given that we are literally willing to let go of everything we own.
2) I read this post about giving up Christmas presents and realized that we are not alone in our decision not to celebrate in a monetary way.

We are very blessed to have this beautiful new home, and we have a Christmas tree and clothing to wear and plenty of cloth diapers (so thankful for cloth diapers! we don't spend any money diapering!). We'll stop paying the rent before we stop buying food, so we aren't going to starve. We have each other, and we even have lots of fun music on iTunes and DVD's! Once I get unpacked, I think we can do some fun Christmas baking together. I was considering this cinnamon applesauce ornament recipe from Adele, which would also give us something to gift to the grandparents.

I sort of blame Twitter and Facebook for making me doubt our decision... if I wasn't seeing all the updates from my friends about Black Friday, online shopping, and what they're getting their kids and how excited their kids are about opening gifts, I might not be as tempted to compare. Hopefully, this kind of un-Christmas will give us a new perspective on people who are really and truly hurting and don't have a warm house, nice clothes, and plenty of food. If all we have to give up is some kind of doll or some kind of truck or a nice dinner out... I think we can handle that!

Zombies Can Eat Your Brain, but Can They Save Your Soul

A review of the book The Christian’s Zombie Killers Handbook, Slaying the Living Dead Within Written by: Jeff Kinley  Review by: Millie Minor-Gibson
** Please note this is a guest post although I think it is awesome and I wish I did write it! **

Over the years zombies have fluxed in an out of popular culture and have been part of folklore since around the 19th century. There are two main types of zombies: 1) the crazy, brain munching, soul-less reanimated corps that bite people turning their victims into a crazy, brain munching, soul-less reanimated corps, like in Sean of the Dead, Zombieland and all those George Romero  movies.  2) Someone dead or alive who is controlled by a sorcerer or Voodoo priest. The 2nd kind isn’t as popular, but was used in 1932’s White Zombie staring Bela Lugosi. (Personally, I feel #2 is a great metaphor for the way we allow sin to control our lives.) There is also interesting zombie folk lore regarding the Haitians and some very potent pharmaceuticals used on patients in the 1930’s. Some say Haiti is where zombie lore originated.

Since the reanimation of zombies in pop culture (pun intended) there have been zombie flash mobs, zombie parades, zombie proms, zombie walks, zombie movies, zombie TV shows, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and now a Christian Zombie book. It was only a matter of time before the Christian market monopolized on the popularity of zombies in pop culture.

It has always been a pet peeve of mine when Christian pop culture monopolizes off of whatever is popular in secular pop culture, but will not fully commit to it because it is too secular. Zombies are still popular, but defiantly on their way out; much like flash mobs, at least this is what the cool kids are saying. I suppose a zombie flash mob would be the most passé thing you could do, other than being really into Lost, (that’s a joke, for all of you who are like, WHAT?!? Lost, Flash Mobs, Zombies…they are still cool!)  I feel that if the Christian market would come up with original, creative, mind blowing ideas the secular world would sit up and notice. Great example, Veggie Tales; Yes, it has been around since the mid 90’s, but it is still great and I know even non-Christians watch and enjoy the talking vegetables with Christian morals.

So, here we are with a The Christian’s Zombie Killers Handbook by Jeff Kinley. This book alternates between a zombie story and a Bible study. I will explain a bit about the story later, but first I I want to start with the Bible Study portion. I had never heard of Jeff Kinley before, but with a bit of internet research I have found that he runs a ministry on www.mainthingministries.com and has written around 15 books. This book is intended to be a study guide, or a devotional of sorts. There are even packages you can order for a church youth retreat. Jeff Kinley has a lot of good things to say. As a Christian devotional writer he writes in a manner that is honest and easy to understand. However, I felt the metaphor of “the zombie inside us” was unnecessary for the message he wanted to convey. It was a gimmick; something to get the “on the fencers” who love horror and zombies sucked in. I get the monster inside of us that is trying to destroy and sabotage who we are intended to be in Christ, message. However, I am not sure the metaphor of zombie was best used here.  I found the metaphor to be distracting and somewhat confusing; as if the author couldn’t fully explain it himself. I also did not understand how the story, described below, fit in with the Bible study portion. It seems they just both talked about Zombies.

The other portion of the book told a story about Ben Forman: A normal guy who doesn’t have a relationship with God, is living in a world of zombies and is engaged to a woman named Crystal who he loves very much. The author goes into a bit of detail about the zombies: Some people are bitten and some people have the gene living inside of them since birth until one day, POW! You are a zombie. There are a few story developments I do not want to ruin in case anyone want to read the book that were mildly intriguing.  Despite other comments I read about this book this story is not horror. Yes, it is a zombie story, but it is not graphic, it is not scary, it is hardly suspenseful. There would have to be enough character development to become invested in the characters for you to be scared for them. The main character, Ben Forman, had a difficult time believing in God, but his struggles seemed undeveloped and watered down. I am a Christian; most of my friends are not. The author’s depiction of non-believers in the story and in the devotional part seem unrealistic and one dimensional. In the end he depicted non-believers to be something you should run from and fear, like a brain munching zombie. How are we to be a light to the world, if we are not out there influencing it?  I suppose that is a different topic for a different Christian book. Tinker Bell type fairies maybe.

Conclusion: This would be a fun book for a church youth retreat taken around Halloween. Jeff Kinley, though I don’t agree with everything, has many good things to say. I hope this book has touched someone less critical than me. 

~~
NOTE: This book was provided to me free from BookSneeze in exchange for a review. I made Millie review it because it seemed so completely ridiculous to me that I was unable to read it myself. Obviously, the free product did not influence either of our opinions.

Ruby's Studio: The Feelings Show

After 30 straight days of NaBloPoMo and now the holiday season, I am sure that you are thinking, "I wish Jenny would tell me about some products she loves so that I can go buy them". Well, you are in luck. Here is one for you.

When I went to BlogHer this year, I was given a copy of Ruby's Studio "The Feelings Show" DVD. Ruby is a [very heavily made-up] babysitter-like character who appears to run an art studio for kids. She has magical powers to sprinkle sparkly dust that generate animations illustrating whatever topic she's discussing with the kids. Since there's only one Ruby's Studio DVD so far, the only topic is Feelings.

Receiving this DVD in August was actually pretty good timing since Little Sir was really frustrated for quite a while when he was learning to talk. He had a lot of feelings that he could not express, apparently. He yelled a lot and threw tantrums. Oh wait, he still does that...

Do I think this DVD helped him identify his feelings? Maybe. He did go around saying "happy!" and "sad!" and "mad!" shortly after watching this DVD off and on for about a week. He can identify expressions on characters and on his sister as happy, sad, or mad. In that way, I do think that it helped. And he does pay attention to the show. It doesn't move too fast but it does keep him interested. It's a nice, calm pace.

It hasn't necessarily helped him manage his feelings, but that isn't something I'd expect a DVD to do anyway. That's probably more of a maturity thing. We do practice trying to take deep breaths when he is mad, but it doesn't always work. I think the point is that the DVD is helping to remind him to identify his feelings. Some day he will be able to apply that knowledge and learn to manage them.

The message is distinctly non-religious, so if you are of a particular belief system you might want to talk with your child yourself about aspects of feelings as they apply to your faith. I am not worried about it being religion-neutral because I believe it's my job to talk to my kids about faith and not the job of a DVD.

Overall, I have enjoyed this DVD and would not mind seeing more episodes of this show. The only criticism I have heard is when Christian remarked that Ruby wears a ton of makeup. Definitely true, but I realize that the goal is to make Ruby a kind of caricature of a person, like a magical realistic cartoon, so she isn't supposed to be real-looking. Also, I am sure they are creating a persona that can be recreated with makeup and costume on any actress so they aren't restricted to the one actress that they used for The Feelings Show.

Ruby's Studio is produced and managed by The Mother Company, a female-owned small business.

If you are looking for a positive DVD to put in your toddler or preschooler's stocking for this Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus, I would recommend Ruby's Studio "The Feelings Show"!


NOTE: I received a free copy of Ruby's Studio "The Feelings Show" at BlogHer with the hopes that I would review it, which I have. The Amazon link is an affiliate link which gives me like 2 cents if you buy the DVD. All opinions are my own. If I would have hated it, I definitely would have told you because I like to mock things.