This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light.

Today I'm going to try to answer the question "How does your emotional health affect your physical health?" That's a hard one for me because the straight answer--the state-of-affairs answer--is also kind of the depressing answer. How does my emotional health affect my physical health? Well, when I'm bored or tired or needy or stressed or stuck in any among a hundred less-than-balanced brainspaces, I'm also likely to be consuming semisweet chocolate chips by the handful, putting an extra, heaping spoonful of sugar in my extra, brimming cup of tea, and then spending the rest of the day in a steeplechase with my bloodsugar. Unfortunately, this correlation between brain/heart and body does not go both ways.

When I'm feeling fine, I don't really think about food all that much (yes, I'm one of those people), so I usually just eat what I need to, which, for the most part, is pretty healthy--grilled fish and steamed veggies and rice, all with a hearty shake-shake-shake-shake-shake of soy sauce. I also regularly indulge in things like English muffins soaked in butter and honey for elevensies and anything I can get my hands on that serves as a proper vehicle for full-fat sour cream, but that's neither here nor there. I'll concede that unhealthiness is a "bad thing," but so is deprivation of life's greatest joys (see also: bacon), and I figure that so far as the big picture remains roughly pyramidal like the FDA's food chart of yore, I shouldn't get too worked up about any of it.

All things considered, I'd call myself a generally "emotionally healthy" person, but, as mentioned above, feeling emotionally well doesn't always translate into eating well the way feeling emotionally crappy makes me want to inject liquefied french fries directly into a vein. With that in mind, for me the better question is not how my emotional health affects my physical health but how my physical health affects my emotional health; there, on the other side of that question, is where change can occur.

When I eat healthy and filling meals comprising fresh produce, whole grains, and lean protein, I have more energy throughout the day. When I stay hydrated, I don't wilt and bow down over the keyboard like a sad tulip that's lost its turgor pressure. Basically, my physical health can positively impact my emotional health in the way that my emotional health can negatively impact my physical health, savvy? So, sometimes I have to trick myself into making healthy choices--for instance, brown rice tastes better with soy sauce, water tastes better with Crystal Light, and physical fitness is more fun if it's part of a video game--and, as with children and yucky green vegetables, sometimes acceptance of a healthy choices is all in the presentation.

Crystal Light : water as festive accoutrements : any beverage.

But if I can trick (or even just gently remind) myself that staying physically healthy will also improve my emotional health? Then I feel much better all around.

What about you? How does your emotional health affect your physical health and/or vice versa?

Answer the question and be entered to win a $100 Visa gift card from BlogHer and Crystal Light. For more chances to win $100 and to get a crack at the $1,000 grand prize, check out the BlogHer round-up page.

Official contest rules are here.

More information on Crystal Light products is here.

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light.

By the grace of nothing less than good fortune, I was blessed with genes that always allowed for easy camouflage of the parts of my body I was less than fond of. The right cut of skirt, a shoulder seam sewn just so, a perfectly padded bra. I'm not the most fashionable person in the world, but I do think I've found a style niche that compliments both my lifestyle and my shape...or so I thought until I had a toddler.

Why "toddler" and not "baby"? Because, as you might remember, my body quite miraculously snapped back into shape within a few months of giving birth, and it wasn't until Wombat was about a year old that things started to go south, and quite literally. I knew what to expect when expecting, but I did not suspect that having a baby would make me more susceptible to gravity the way (and in the regions) it has. My butt deflated, my stomach sagged, and I now know why the brassiere's main parts are called "cups"--to contain the sloshing.

I tell myself: "It's not fat, it's loose skin!" I tell myself: "There are not enough push-ups in the world to restore your chest to its former state, so why bother?" I tell myself that my previously low-maintenance body is merely on hormonal hiatus and that if I just wait it out, I'll be back to normal in no time. Okay, yeah, so I've been eating a lot of cookies and clocking a lot of time in this here chair and, fine, I might counteract some of that damage with less sitting, more moving, less juice, more water. And yet...I did, after all, have a person live inside and then exit my body, so maybe it's not my body that needs to change but my expectations. Or perhaps not change but at least shift--much like my internal organs did to accommodate the aforementioned fetus-turned-toddler.

What I'm trying to do (trying!) is focus not on what my body looks like but what it can (and can't) do, and what steps I should take to make it its best. I'm the poster child for skinny ≠ healthy, and my goal this year is to work more on caring for my body in terms of how I can be the healthiest, fittest me, even if it means accepting that in some places it is (and will always be) loose skin and there really aren't enough push-ups in the world. Thus: Instead of noting my food intake as calories, I'm trying note it as fuel and energy. Instead of fixating on the "work" part of "working out," I'm trying to focus on the "out" part--or at least the "up" (off the couch) part. (Did you know that Crystal Light has a line of "Metabolism+" drinks that contain caffeine for oomph but without the sugar and other junk in many caffeinated beverages? That would definitely help me get in gear.) I still care what I look like (I think we all do), and I'll still long for the days when I didn't have to worry about this stuff, but I also know that a body that has created and sustained life should be treated with care and respect--and also that it can probably handle a few jumping jacks now and then (but mind the leakage!).

Whether or not you've had a baby, whether or not you're happy with your shape, and whether or not you're working to change, I hope you all have an answer to this question (and not solely because it means you'll be entered for a chance to win $100):

What do you do to honor your body? Do you eat right? Stay hydrated and cleansed? Sleep in? Schedule preventative medical checkups? Exercise regularly? Smile at yourself in the mirror every day?

For more chances to win $100 and to get a crack at the $1,000 grand prize, check out the BlogHer round-up page.

Official contest rules are here.

More information on Crystal Light products is here.

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light.

The most dehydrated I've ever been was in August of 2000. I was twenty-one years old, in Europe for the first time, taking a ten-day tour of Italy after my month-long study abroad with my boyfriend in Neuchatel, Switzerland. En route to Italy, we overnighted at a hostel nestled in the shadow of the Matterhorn, and it was there that we ran into a scrappy backpacker who had a drink with us, passed along a few crumpled photocopies about a place called Cinque Terre, and then disappeared into the fog of the night. We'd never heard of the place (this was before Rick Steves pimped it to the public-television masses) but it looked amazing, so it was an easy decicion to skip Pisa and Siena and spend our last two days in Italy on the coast instead. Cinque Terre--a string of five small-to-tiny villages tucked up to the chin by the sapphire sheet of the Mediterranean--were probably the most spectacular picture-postcard places I'd ever seen. They were also a welcome excuse to slow down, sit, recline, and relax after a whirlwind tour of Venice, Florence, and Rome. On our second day there, we set out from one of the towns intending to hike along the cliffside trail to the next town--not too far--but then when we got to the next town, it was so beautiful, we decided to keep going...and keep going, and keep going, and then before we knew it we were on an endless trail perched between villages and it was HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT, and even though we took some time out to rest our sun-soaked bones on a rock spit turned boat ramp before testing out our bouyancy in the super salty sea a bit, that turned out to be our worst idea because when we got out and air dried our bodies (no towels), we found ourselves entirely encrusted with salt, and we had NO WATER. We had been hiking for hours and it was HOT. (Our spot was right behind the pink towel at the far left.) Because we were behind the curve of the coast, we didn't know how close (or far) we were to the next town, and as we walked and walked and sweated and sweated, I swear I could feel the second-skin of salt leaching out of my body whatever miniscule drops of water were left in my system. I pictured myself as a dessicated corpse and didn't like what I saw. So we persevered. And complained mightily. And (spoiler!) didn't die. (The sun nearly whitewashed my hair to transparent that day, though.) So that was the most dehydrated I've ever been. The most hydrated I've ever been? December 14, 2008, when I was in labor with my son. I showed up to the hospital so dehydrated it took four people and seven increasingly apologetic stabs to get an IV in me, and then I spent the next twenty hours (twenty hours!) (in addition to the six I'd labored at home!) hooked up to bag after bag after bag of saline, so that by the time the baby was out and Simon was sticking cameras in my face, I looked like a blonde, pink Jabba the Hutt (albeit clutching the cutest swaddling worm you ever did see). And then while I was incapacitated by the post-birth haze of euphoria, he proceeded to email the very worst of those photos to everyone in his address book. Now, I realized--and so did everyone else--that I had just given birth. Like just. My hair was a mess, I hadn't slept in a long time, I had produced LIFE. I get that. But I was also bloated and squishy and eeeuuuuuggge and just...ugh. You can't Photoshop that stuff out is what I'm saying; it wasn't how I pictured Wombat's birth announcement. (And no, you cannot see those pictures.) So, water is like a lot of things: you can definitely have too little or too much of it, and the best place to be is right in the middle--hydrated but not full to bursting like a water balloon. Usually I accomplish the balance by keeping water with me throughout the day, either as a cup of ice water next to the computer or a full water bottle and a few packs of Crystal Light thrown into my purse when I go out. I mean, I like water as much as the next guy, but I prefer it in moderation, thank you very much. I'm not after creating any more memories of being on either end of its bad side. How about you? What's your water style? Do you have a water routine that helps you stay hydrated throughout the day? Do you remember ever being particularly over- or under-watered? ***

Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win $100 from Crystal Light and BlogHer. (Click over to the BlogHer round-up page for six more chances to win $100 and to throw your hat into the ring for the $1,000 grand prize.)

Official contest rules are here.

More information on Crystal Light products is here.

This is sponsored content from BlogHer and Crystal Light.

Call me a troglodyte, but I don't really enjoy traveling all that much. It's partly the getting there and partly the being there, but mostly it's that even if a vacation is an excuse to escape an exhausting routine, I honestly almost prefer the routine because it's comfortable and I'm a big old 'fraidy cat when it comes to trying anything new. I'm a creature of habit, I like surrounding myself with the familiar, and I'm not good at improvising. I like going to the same restaurant and ordering the same dish. I like plans and I like sticking to them. I think status quo is the way to go (rah rah rah). Basically, for a good time out on the town, don't call me.

But don't get me wrong. I definitely appreciate having the chance to travel and see new things and meet new people (or return to favorite places to be near our favorite things and people), but when pressed, I'd have to admit to the dark corner of an empty room (or right here on the Internet for all to see) that sometimes my favorite part of travel is the having been there part. Ah, memories--there's nothing like traveling the world from the comfort of your favorite armchair. (I saw a New Yorker cartoon about this once; one thousand gold stars for the person who finds it for me.)

When I am traveling, though--or even when I'm just away from home in general--I do my best to have a good time and keep my anxiety under control, and one of the ways I do that is with food. Food is my security blanket, and for me that always means packing an arsenal of snacks. The happy side effect of this is that because I prefer wholesome munchies over junk, it's generally easier for me to stay healthy when I'm on the road (or in the air or on the tracks) because if I'm turning to the whole grain granola bars, nuts, fruit, and water I've brought with me, I'm less likely to succumb to the delirium of low blood sugar and, say, accost a New York hot dog vendor or propose marriage to the guy selling giant soft pretzels. (I'm also, however, more likely to guiltlessly order dessert--as a reward for having eaten healthy foods all day, of course--but hey, I'm on vacation! If you can't have dessert on vacation, you might as well just stay home, right?)

For me, a good travel snack is four things: healthy; available in a single-serving to-go package; able to be tossed in a suitcase, backpack, or purse without making a mess; and of course loaded with tasty goodness. How convenient for this blog post that Crystal Light has a variety of beverage options that fit the bill!

Perhaps you've heard I'm flying cross-country this week to attend a certain blogging conference? If you're going too, here are a couple of tips from me to you:

Tip #1: If you, like me, hate buying overpriced beverages at the airport--a hard thing to get around considering they don't let drinks past security--pack your carryon with an empty water bottle and some Crystal Light OnTheGo packets in your favorite flavors. As soon as you're through security, fill up the bottle at a drinking fountain, shake in some Crystal Light, and you're on your way (with more money in your pockets and less junk in your system).

(They also don't let you take outside drinks into ballgames or movie theaters, but the water bottle trick works great in those situations too.)

Tip #2: If you're at BlogHer this weekend and feeling peckish or dehydrated between conference sessions, remember: I'm the girl with the snacks. Come find me and we'll share.

***

Want to win $100? Tell me in the comments what you do to stay healthy while on vacation, and then be sure to check out the BlogHer round-up page for six more chances to win $100 or, even better, the $1,000 grand prize.

Official contest rules are here.

More information on Crystal Light products is here.

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Ritz.

I'm one of those delicate flowers who needs to eat every few hours or else I get all weeble-wobbly from low blood sugar and have to be revived--from the chaise onto which I have gracefully swooned, naturally--with a treatment of smelling salts. But because smelling salts are harder to come by this century, instead of carrying around a vial (or vile--get it? because salts stink? ha ha?), I usually opt to equip myself with a handful of snacks, which is awesome because wherever I am and whatever I'm doing it's like I'm some sort of enchanted turtle wizard who carries not her entire home on her back but instead just the pantry, stocked with a seemingly endless supply of goodies. My purse is like Mary Poppins' carpetbag, but instead of pulling out coat racks and floor lamps it's single-serving tide-me-over munchies.

In a perfect world, I might build my own snacks out of fresh ingredients and package them in reusable containers, but let's face it, the world I'm living in is far from perfect and most of the time I don't have the brainspace for anything that sophisticated, and so grab-and-go saves the day. About a year ago I reviewed Ritz Crakerfuls as a good take-everywhere emergency snack, and now they have a new flavor--Cheddar Cheese with Bacon--and my friends, you just can't argue with bacon.

***

There's something really indulgent about bacon, am I right? Bacon can turn regular food into gloriously sinful food, and if you close your eyes while you're eating a be-baconed treat, the power of its meatysalty goodness might even be enough to make you forget for a second that you're in Hour Six of sitting at a desk staring at TPS reports. At the very least, taking time out of the workday for a snack will give you an excuse to check Twitter, and that's no small prize.

Okay, fine, that's totally cheating, since I can't really test a product's true tide-me-over on-the-go potential if I'm enjoying it with lunch at home (but let's be frank: a salad alone won't keep me sated for more than an hour, so a cheese-and-bacon supplement was totally required eating), and thus, please see also:

(That giant man thumb does not belong to me!)

and

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but a combination of work and play makes this girl HUNGRY, so thank, Ritz, for giving the world the gift of portable bacon. (Portable bacon!)

***

For a chance to win one of sixteen $100 Visa gift cards, leave a comment on this post before July 31 telling me how you break up the monotony of a busy day (e.g., will I see you on Twitter?). Official rules of the contest can be found here, and more chances to win are on the BlogHer.com special offers page.

Follow the link to save $1.00 on Ritz Crackerfuls, and for more information on the product itself, why not try this link?

Good luck!

I'm getting married...sometime?...soon?...and I need your help. Tell me what you guys think about this wedding theme: Swamp Oasis.

Dreamy, huh? It's magical yet gritty, down-to-earth (literally) yet full of whimsy, and above all else it's unique, original, one-of-a-kind...except not so much now that it's being featured on a reality show this month.

This is a sponsored review from BlogHer and WE tv.

So. "Swamp Oasis." Two brilliantly onomatopoeic words you never thought you'd see together, or an inspired theme for a wedding? One thing's for certain: a celebration that combines alligators and sucking mud with a unity candle is bound to be memorable, or at least good television. WE tv (you know, the wedding channel) will be the place to see the outcome of one Swamp Bride's vision on June 6 during the Ultimate Wedding Sunday (9 p.m. eastern/8 p.m. central).

I haven't seen the full episode of the swamp oasis debacle (a.k.a. the season premiere of My Fair Wedding with David Tutera), but I'm definitely intrigued. What I have seen, though, is the season premiere of Bridezillas, the wedding show featuring the girls we love to hate. In this episode, we meet Natalie (gettin' married in the SLC, woot!) and Martina, who is not given a last name on the show but whom I'll call Martina McBride because, come on, Martina McBride? Get it?

Which one will force her bridesmaid/sister to go on a diet? Which one will utter the million-dollar phrase "My Special Day"? Which one will joke constantly (no, really, constantly) about wearing tennis shoes under her dress in case she decides to bolt from her groom (again)? Which one will show up to her bridal shower three hours late looking like she just came from a funeral--black dress, black opera-length gloves, and a black hat? (Hint: The funeral garb is foreshadowing for when that bride will later throw a fit when a member of her wedding party has to miss Her Special Day after a death in the family.)

I get that sometimes weddings can make even the nicest people a little bonkers for a spell, and although I want to believe that the grooms aren't fooling themselves when they say they're looking forward to their respective weddings being over because then their women will return to normal, I just can't shake the feeling that "normal" for these women doesn't mean what I think it means. The show is called "Bridezillas" for a reason, and although the name implies that the "'zilla" part is a function of the "bride" part, I can't help but speculate that what we have here is not two bridezillas but two girlfriendzillas on the road to becoming wifezillas; the fact that they're brides is incidental, although it does afford us the chance to ooh and aah over gowns and tiaras and flower arrangements, which is obviously the main reason weddings are broadcast on t.v. in the first place, right?

Now it's your chance to play along for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card.

Tell me: What wedding details do you love to obsess over, even if it isn't your wedding? The dress? The bouquets? The table settings? The cake? The STDs? (That's "save the dates," in most cases.) Leave your comment below, and then be sure to click over to the BlogHer roundup page for four more chances to win.

(Read the official rules here.)

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and LOFT.

Last Saturday I was one of fifteen lucky ladies chosen by BlogHer to shop LOFT's special shopping event--did you see the ads? d.j.s, snacks, and 30% off all full-price merch!--and then report back to you about the experience (plus offer you a discount code and give you a chance to win a gift card! read on!). All I had to do was show up at the store, team up with a professional stylist, dress up in fabulous clothes, and then stand up straight for the photographer hired to make the entire experience utterly terrifying capture the moment for you folks at home.

Luckily, I was distracted from the whole surprise!modeling! thing by being given a "style challenge." The goal was to create three looks--a casual holiday outfit, an office-to-evening outfit, and a pretty party outfit--in 45 minutes, and you're right if you think this appealed to my inner achiever and from the second I walked through the front doors I was all "GO! GO! GO!" probably scaring the very nice and very stylish stylist (hi, Hailey!) a little. But because she was contracted for the entire day, she stuck with me through the temporary mania, and together we pulled together three great outfits, accessories and all, fa la la la la (or fa la la la LOFT?). (Sorry, 'tis the season for bad puns.)

Challenge #1: Create a laid-back look that will keep you cozy and cute during your downtime (HA) this holiday.

Laid-back, cozy, and cute, you say? Bring it on! Let's do this! Eye of the tiger! And then...aye yai yai, the stylist pulled out a pair of skinny jeans. I think I lost ten pounds just talking circles around why I shouldn't wear skinny jeans, not at this age, not ever, but you know what? Perhaps all that cardio-avoidance was why they not only fit but looked pretty darn cute. [All photos by the talented and non-scary Robert Schroeder.]

Jeans
Shirt in Ivory
Cardigan (not available online)
Scarf

Disclaimer: I agreed to be photographed in anything the stylist wanted to put on me, but in real life I would definitely opt for a longer sweater so I'd feel less...exposed by so little stretch denim over so much me. That said, after wearing the jeans for a while and feeling them loosen up a bit (and maybe my attitude as well?), I might have to take them off my Never in a Million Years list (jeggings, if you must know, will always be on that list) and wear them with the long cardigan I bought.

The real star of the show here, though, is this necklace to end all necklaces, which, you guys, is so awesome I can't even stand it.

I'm going to wear it with everything I own, including my p.j.s and fuzzy green slippers.

Challenge #2: Pull together a versatile look that you can transform from office-appropriate to party-ready in no time.

If you've been here awhile, you already know that my office is mostly full of hippies and slackers, so if I ever showed up in what the rest of the world calls "office-appropriate attire," my coworkers would probably take one look at me and suspect I had a lunchtime job interview with The Man. Also, I only go to the office one day a week, and come on, what's the chance I'll ever have to go directly from the office to a party on that one day? Apparently EVERY TUESDAY IN DECEMBER, that's when. This is what we came up with:

Skirt (Zoom in to see the pattern on the skirt; that's what makes the outfit a little fancy. Also, the skirt has pockets!)
Shirt in Rosette
Cardigan in taupe (not available online)
Bracelet (not available online)

My favorite feature of this outfit is that all the pieces are extremely versatile. The skirt could be worn with a fancier blouse, the T-shirt could be worn with jeans, and the cardigan...well, I bought the cardigan and I'm going to wear it everywhere. In fact, I think I'm about to order another one in a different color right now.

Challenge #3: From low-key style to full-on glamour, pull together a look that will make you shine at any get-together.

Although I told the stylist I live in jeans and put comfort above all else, I had to admit that when it comes to party dresses, I like to do it up right--heels, fishnets, bling, what-have-you. I also confessed that I don't own an official little black dress, and that is when the heavens opened up, a ray of light shone down from above, and I beheld this:

Dress in black

Now that's A DRESS. (To fully appreciate the detailing, you can see it really REALLY big here.)

The best part is this bow at the nape, which you'll see had me feeling rather saucy.

This dress is, like, THE dress, and if I hadn't already felt that the second I tied the bow in back, I certainly knew it when not only the stylist and the dressing room attendants oohed and aahed at me but then other customers emerged from their closets to see what all the fuss was about. One woman said, "You're getting that, right? Because the way you looked at yourself in the mirror was just...I could tell you knew you looked pretty."

Okay, clothes aside, everyone should shop at LOFT because it will make you feel good about yourself (and more than a dozen chocolate doughnuts ever could). (In fact, when I called to talk to the store manager a few days after my shopping trip, I told her about how nice the other customers were (in addition to her awesome staff), and she said that's pretty typical, since the saleswomen try their best to make the entire store--and the fitting room in particular--a positive, friendly environment instead of a death-march to the public three-way mirror. The customers really seem to feed off of that, and I even found myself complimenting other customers on their selection, a scene which I'm sure has Simon choking on his whiskey because me? talk to strangers? while shopping? Crazytalk.)

Anyway...This is my favorite kind of review to write because I don't have one negative thing to say about the experience or the product. Even better, now I get to offer YOU a chance to win your own fabulous experience.

For starters, here's a coupon for 20% off purchases at LOFT (in-store use only), valid through December 31, 2009.

Now, to enter to win a $200 LOFT gift card, leave me a comment below telling me which of the above three outfits is your favorite (although, COME ON, it's obviously THE DRESS). For more chances to win, leave me a link to your Twitter tweet about this entry, leave a comment on the BlogHer round-up page, and then check out the other reviews (for a total of fifteen chances to win)! (Please make sure you leave a valid email address.)

More official stuff:

* The contest runs from December 10 through December 25, 2009.
* No duplicate comments.
* Receive an additional entry by linking on Twitter and leaving a link to your tweet in the comments.
* Receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
* Giveaway is open to US Residents aged 18 and older.
* Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by email.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
* Please see the official rules here.

This is a compensated review by BlogHer and Aquaphor.

For a chance to win $100 and a gift basket full of goodies, don't miss the contest rules following the adorable picture of my adorable son.

While we were stocking our cabinets with all things baby before Wombat was born, you might have heard my voice echoing through the hallowed aisles of Target as I fought Simon for only the very best brand-name shampoos and lotions and rash creams and bodywashes and detergents and everything, because GENERIC? For my pweshus baby's skin? Is he siewius serious? This is my child, my spanking-new, unblemished, pure as silk, soft as snow babyprince he was talking about--not the sort of thing I'd leave vulnerable to the roulette spin of brand-X products, you know? I mean, what if they contained harsh chemicals or, like, sand and broken glass?

Now, almost a year later, I've learned that there are bigger battles to fight (right now it's brand name v. generic car seats), and there are also many worse enemies to a baby's skin than brand-X detergent (among them industrial carpeting, crazy cats, winter weather, and 12-hour diapers). Which is another way of saying that unless you keep your baby stark nekkid in a climate-controlled bubble, that perfect skin won't be perfect for long, no matter what you do.

But even accepting the inevitability of scrapes and scratches and itchy-flakey-chappies, this is still a baby we're talking about, and so I do my best to protect and preserve what he was born with, and if that means insisting on high-quality skincare, so be it. Enter BlogHer and Aquaphor, who asked if I'd like to review some dermatologist- and pediatrician-recommended baby products, and of course I jumped.

Let me start off by saying one thing: This Aquaphor stuff is heavy duty. It's not something you buy because it smells pretty or looks cute in the nursery (although neither its smell nor its look is anything to wrinkle your nose at); you buy it because you want something that will condition and improve your baby's skin. The Healing Ointment is free of fragrances and preservatives on purpose, and that's not a feature a lot of baby products can claim.

One look at this stuff and you can tell it means business. Not unlike petroleum jelly in texture and appearance, the Healing Ointment is a straight-up, no-nonsense skin protectant that can be used on a range of ailments, from diaper rash to minor cuts, scrapes, and burns to skin dried out by the cold weather (or by sitting in front of the fireplace all day because California is COLD, y'all). Wombat had a mysterious little scratch on his leg a few weeks ago (cats? hardwood floors? rusty nails?), and I felt good about putting the Aquaphor ointment on him because it wasn't a lotion full of scents and colors and who knows what else that might sting and make the cut feel worse, and it also was a perfect substitute for a bandaid, which he'd have ripped off and stuffed in his mouth before you could say "oozing infection."

Aside from its uses for babies, the Healing Ointment also works on big kids (read: the thirty-year-old woman writing this review, who may still be in denial of her adulthood), and this week alone I've used it to soothe chapped lips, moisturize dry patches after shaving my legs, and soften the soles of my feet while I sleep. (Don't forget to put on socks, though, as this stuff stays a little slippery for hours after it's penetrated the top layer of your skin.) The Healing Ointment also comes in a variety of packaging (small tube, large tube, and tub), so you can pick the size that will work best for your needs.

The other product I tried was Aquaphor's Gentle Wash and Shampoo for babies, a two-in-one, no-tears formula that's also fragrance free, at least nominally. (The first time we used it, Simon and I thought the shampoo smelled a bit like...how do I say this?...white glue?, at least as it was coming directly out of the bottle. It wasn't gross so much as just...unexpected, but we're relieved to report that it doesn't smell like much of anything once it's mixed with water and rubbed on delicious babyskin.)

After a bath with Aquaphor, Wombat's skin was soft and his hair was silky and shiny and every last part of him smelled wonderful--not like baby powder or roses or candy (or glue!) but like a clean baby, which was nice for a change. Note: Babies are leaky and gross, and a lot of the time they don't smell very good AT ALL, especially if your pediatrician has told you not to bathe yours too often lest his cold-weather eczema flare up again. As Wombat gets more mobile and into more messes, though, I definitely see more frequent baths in our future, and with Aquaphor I don't have to worry about overdoing it.

That was the adorable picture of my adorable son, which means now it's your turn to win some cash and prizes! (At stake is a $100 Visa gift card, plus an Aquaphor gift basket valued at $118.38. You know you want it.)

(That's two 14 oz jars of Aquaphor Baby, two 3 oz tubes, two .35 oz tubes, two 8 oz Gentle Wash and Shampoos, two Eucerin Hand Crème, one 8 oz bottle of Eucerin Original Lotion, one 16 oz jar of Eucerin Original Crème, one 14 oz tube of Eucerin Calming Crème, and one rubber ducky wearing a labcoat and a wee stethoscope.)

Leave a comment below telling me how you would use Aquaphor products, and then check out the other BlogHer reviewers' posts for a total of eight chances to win. (There's also a sweepstakes contest here for $1000!)

To enter, leave me a comment below, leave a link to your own Aquaphor post, or link to your Twitter post about the contest. The contest will begin on Monday, November 16, and will end Tuesday, December 15th. If you want to win, make sure you leave a valid email address.

The fine print:

• No duplicate comments.


• Receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.


• Receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.


• This giveaway is open to US residents, aged 18 and over.


• Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by email.


• If you're my winner, you have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.


• Please see the official rules here.

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This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Ritz Crackerfuls. It's also your chance to win a $100 gift card!

Ever since we got new patio furniture in March, Simon has been inviting anyone and everyone to come over and try it out. "You do sit, don't you?" he asks the friend/acquaintance/stranger. "Legs bend and all?"*

Now, this unbridled hospitality is all fine and good, except that you can't invite people over for a sit and then just...sit. You also have to "entertain" them, and I mean that not in the Gypsy Rose Lee sense (usually) but in the Martha Stewart sense. (See also every single buyer on House Hunters, who can't just say, "I need a big kitchen because I like to have parties" because no, when you are old enough to have a house, you are too mature and sophisticated to have "parties"--you must entertain. La. Dee. Dah.)

Anyway, guess who freaks out about preparing for guests because, OMG, there are floors to sweep and bathrooms to scrub and lemons to squeeze and snacks to purchase and then prepare and then arrange artfully on a platter in a casually elegant manner? Yes, that would be me. I tend to freak out so much about the food, in fact, that nine times out of ten Simon orders me to go huddle in a corner and breathe into a paper bag while he takes care of everything himself. He's a saint, that one. (And also not too shabby when it comes to artfully arranging slices of rustic bread in a napkin-lined basket.)

So it was with one such event fresh in my mind that I volunteered to review the new Ritz Crackerfuls for BlogHer. My main criteria was "Will this make it easier for me to entertain the often spur-of-the-moment company that my more social half likes to bring home?" Let's see how they did, shall we?

Pro: They're delicious. All the buttery goodness of Ritz you've always loved.

Con: The filling has real cheese in it, but it looks and feels a bit like the stuff that comes in an aerosol can (which is also delicious albeit not to everyone's tastes).

Pro: Each Crackerful is individually sealed, which means no more half-empty boxes of crackers going stale in our pantry, which, as you can see, is a MAJOR problem.

Con: All that extra packaging means a whole lot of extra garbage. :(

Pro: Because the cheese and crackers are already assembled, Crackerfuls are a good one-handed snack, which is especially handy (ha!) if you have to wrestle an infant while also entertaining your friends (who are wrestling their infant).

Con: They're kind of crumbly and messy, especially if you're trying to eat them with one hand.

Pro: The cats love hoovering the crumbs off the floor--they've also always loved the buttery goodness of Ritz--so that's a win-win for the entire family!

Overall, Simon doesn't think he'd use Crackerfuls specifically for guests, but we both agreed that they make a fine every-now-and-then snack. (Perhaps that's why they come in boxes of six, individually wrapped, instead of boxes of fifty, dump-into-a-bowl-able?) Right now there's one in my purse as an emergency treat (never leave home without one), and I'm taking another to hide in my desk at work.

So, although Crackerfuls didn't really pass my "entertaining" test, they do pass the most important one: They're yummy. Case in point, I'd intended to take a photo of the unopened boxes for use in this post, but before I knew it both boxes were open and half gone. Simon tried blaming the cats, but there's no way they could have unwrapped each individual cracker without the aid of opposable thumbs, so...Busted!

***

Hey, want to win a $100 gift card? Leave me a comment telling me what time of day you totally crash and need a quick snacky pick-me-up. (For me, it's always at about 10 a.m. And then 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.)

To enter, you can comment here, leave a link to your own blog post about this contest, leave a link to your Tweet (Twittering?) about this contest, or do all three. (No duplicate comments, though.) You can also check out what other BlogHer reviewers have said about Crackerfuls and leave comments on their entries. The contest runs from July 21 at 9 a.m. PST through August 20 at 5 p.m. PST and is open to all US residents age 18 and older. Winners will be selected at random and will be notified by email, so leave a valid address if you want to win. See official rules here.

For more information on Ritz Crackerfuls, visit the official site.

*Fifty gold stars for anyone who knows this reference!

[This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Dreyer's/Edy's Slow Churned Neighborhood Salute.]

We're coming up on the two-year anniversary of moving into our house (can you believe it?), and although these days it's tougher to pay the mortgage--not to mention tougher to reconcile paying so much when the market has fallen so far--Simon and I still find ourselves saying, out loud, every week, "Man, I love this house." Ninety-seven years old with a crumbling foundation and a few shingles shy of a sound roof, it's the place we love coming home to and love calling home. She's a dear old broad with baby blue hair and a few missing teeth, but dammit, she's ours.

One of the most challenging and yet rewarding things about our house is its location: a little pocket of loveliness deep in the heart of Oakland, California, a city whose murder and violent crime rates are between two and three times the national average. Our neighborhood listserve is as active as it is rife with tales of break-ins and robberies, car thefts, and even early morning sidewalk muggings, but amazingly--and almost unbelievably--it's just as full of neighbors helping neighbors, building a community against all odds, whether that means keeping an eye out for suspicious activity on the block or just inviting everyone over for a friendly potluck open house or a plant swap or a playdate.

We really lucked out when it came to neighbors. In a place like the Bay Area, where it seems everyone is a transplant and always in between where they started from and where they'll end up, it's not unusal to live among strangers for years or decades, even while sharing a hallway or a wall. Unlike the neighborhood I grew up in, in suburban Salt Lake City, we adopted Oaklanders are not all from basically the same place with basically the same beliefs and basically the same history, and that can make it hard to connect with people who, on the outside, seem so different.

For instance, our neighbors to the left and right and across the street are a mixture of twenty-somethings, fifty-somethings, and eighty-somethings, and they are black, Asian, and ostensibly Jewish (but then why the Christmas tree every year, guys? so confusing!). These couples moved into their houses three, thirteen, and thirty-nine years ago, and as such reflect the times when the neighborhood was accessible to working-class families, and then only to top-earners, and now to us brave first-timers. It's an unusual collection of residents who have settled here--juxtapositions only an urban sociologist could have predicted--but these are the neighbors with whom we share much more than just a polite nod when we catch their eyes at the curb on garbage night. We share gardening tips over the backyard fence; they water our vegetables while we're out of town; we leave a bag of lemons on their porch in the morning and they bring over fresh lemonade in the afternoon; they call the cops when they don't recognize our housesitter (oops); and they invite us over (finally!) to explore their attic full of first editions and artifacts left behind by a Very Famous Author who used to write masterpieces from their study. These people have become our friends.

Our house has history and our neighborhood has history, but more than that our neighbors have history. It's a little scary to move from somewhere as homogenous and vanilla as Utah to somewhere as...well, it's the San Francisco Bay Area, 'nuff said, and yet the more I step out of my comfort zone, the more I realize that a little effort to reach out makes the reward, the friendships, all the sweeter. It sounds cheesy, but the more I hear the stories of people who are different, the more I realize how much we are the same.

Now, here's where you get to tell your own stories and reap your own sweet rewards. (Read: FREE ICE CREAM!) Dreyer's (or Edy's, for those of you east of the Rockies) is holding its fifth annual Neighborhood Salute contest, in which they sponsor 1,500 ice cream block parties for deserving neighborhoods across America. (Sorry, Canadians, but fear not, you're eligible for other prizes later. Keep reading!) To win a party for your neighborhood--we're talking ice cream, bowls, spoons, everything delivered to your doorstep for you and ninety-nine friends--Visit www.SlowChurned.com and click on the Neighborhood Salute logo to submit your 350-word essay about why your neighborhood deserves the treat.

And for those of you who want a little extra ice cream all to yourselves, this one's for you. To enter to win a free quart and a half of Dreyer's Slow Churned Ice Cream that you don't have to share with ANYONE, leave a comment at the end of this post telling me your best ice cream story or memory. (If you don't have a good story, you can enter to win by telling me your favorite flavor and fixins--I'm a vanilla with gummy bears girl myself; perhaps a reflection of my vanilla-with-gummy-bears upbringing in suburban Utah?) The contest will be open until May 29 (midnight, ET), and ten winners (TEN!) will be chosen at random. To read more stories (and for more chances to win!) visit BlogHer's roundup page here.

The rules:

• No duplicate comments.
• You may receive an additional entry by Twittering about this contest (and leaving a link to the Twitter in the comments below).
• You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest (and leaving a link to the post in the comments below).
• This giveaway is open to U.S. residents, 18 and older.
• Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by email, so be sure to leave a valid email address if you want to win.
• If you're a winner, you have forty-eight hours to respond before a new winner will be selected in your place.
• Please see the official rules here.

Good luck, all you lovers of ice cream and free stuff!